


A Matter of Trust

by salvaged_pride, Spades



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012), The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Angels & Demons, Angels, Bonding, Bruce doesn't know how to play go fish, Demons, F/M, Fallen Angels, Happy is confused as to when Pepper joined the mafia, Logan smells people, M/M, Most of the shipping doesn't show up right away., Multi, NaNoWriMo, Pepper is a BAMF, Slow Build, Someone gets punched, Stark Tower Is a Phallic Object, Tony loves annoying people, Xavier is awesome, howard isn't a bastard, mentioned clint/natasha, rhodey is best bro, yinsen is also best bro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-30
Updated: 2013-02-08
Packaged: 2017-11-27 14:18:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 55,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/662962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/salvaged_pride/pseuds/salvaged_pride, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spades/pseuds/Spades
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Long after an Angel has Fallen, there is a long road to Redemption. Long after an Angel has Fallen, there is a short road to Hell.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a series of pictures by artist [Brilcrist](http://brilcrist.deviantart.com/gallery/) called 'The Avenging Angels'. Images used with permission.

Footsteps echoed against an empty set of pavement, leather shoes clicking with every step. There was a quiet metallic click as fingers curled around a bulbous, plastic palm. His shoulders shuddered beneath a thick black coat as his chin gently pressed down, brown eyes focused on the sidewalk with an almost reverent attention to detail. Silently, he was counting the cracks that lingered along the New York cement, almost mesmerized by the way they split and wrote stories of the things they saw. Good, bad, he could almost imagine the stories they could tell about the endless, infinitesimal shifts in pressure and footprints that created them, the blood that had been spilled between them.

People didn't see him as he walked. They moved towards him, always managing to walk around him almost like they knew someone was there, but they didn't know that there was someone with pair of giant red-brown tinted wings tucked firmly up against his back moving among them. They couldn't hear the mechanical _whrr_ of one of those wings, the sound of gold and crimson metal flexing with the mechanical ingenuity that left him still capable of flight.

A gauntlet-encased hand raised, metal meeting metal as a single finger pushed the bridge of his sunglasses up, situating them closer to his face than the droop they had before. He sped up finally from his languid stomp of feet; he had somewhere he needed to be and this was simply too slow. His mouth thinned as his steps sped into a jog, then into a full on sprint. People began to unconsciously split, moving to either side of the sidewalk until he had an open runway before him. Just as he gained enough momentum, he launched himself into the air, wings spreading wide as he coasted towards his destination. The altitude gave the man the briefest of glimpses of the beautiful sight that lingered below - people that looked like ants from up high, the spread of buildings as lights flickered on as the sun set, the cracks in the pavement that rapidly turned into a connected map of streets and alleys.

In the distance he could see a flash, causing him to look up. Bright white letters lit up like a beacon that read STARK TOWER. He smirked before shaking his head, then dove down towards where he needed to go. He landed without much finesse, down onto his knee and one fist touching the ground and a whisper of a smirk still on his lips. He stood then moved quickly to press himself against the wall, fingers reaching up to his ear as he clicked a button on a mostly hidden earpiece.

"So JARVIS, am I in the right place?" The Angel murmured as not to be heard, his other hand reaching up to brush a few strands of brown from his face. "Tell me I'm in the right place."

" _You are indeed, sir. There are three you'll need to dispatch; I would suggest getting it done quickly, however, as Ms. Potts mentioned she would like you home before dinner and relayed that she'd like you safe_ ," a voice answered the man, one that left him shaking his head and smiling brightly at the ridiculousness of the whole situation.

"Tell Pep I'll be home as soon as I'm finished." A red finger clicked the earpiece off before he snuck around to get a better look at the Demons.

Demons had it easier than him in one sense because they decided to forgo the concept of staying invisible to the eyes of the Humans by taking on Human form themselves. To any Human eyes, it would have looked like three young punks had surrounded a middle aged woman, laughing as they taunted her - street crime in all of its usual form. Instead, the Angel could see the smoky outlines of their wings, the gleaming hints of horns upon their brow, the tinges of green, crimson, and orange that hinted on their skin. Their Human forms drifted in and out of vision like an outline, all smoke and mirrors.

Weaklings, all three. Low level cretins that had a taste for the quick high that came from Human emotions. The stronger the emotions, the better the high, the stronger the feed - all part of the draw that probably caused them to become Demons in the first place. The man flexed his metal hand as his smile turned into a cool smirk. Unlucky for them, he would prove that even a Fallen Angel was more than a match for them.

With a hard flick of his wings, he was airborne. With a fast pivot, he was behind the Demons. With a flare of light, he took down the first of them with a single repulsor bolt. It was all too easy to catch them unaware with how focused they were on frightening the woman to her utmost. The other two Demons turned, fangs showing as they hissed, eyes focusing on the winged being in the sky smirking down at them.

Tony's eyebrow was raised as he landed with a quick thump to the ground, shoulders rolling and wings spreading out wide in an attempt to intimidate the three Demons surrounding the poor mortal. "Really? Picking on ladies, guys? You can't be serious," the Fallen commented, one hand landing on his hip as the other reached to take the sunglasses from his face. "It's like I walked into a really bad movie. What's next? You going to steal candies from little kids?"

"This doesn't involve you, _Fallen_ ," one hissed in insult, his hands raising and glowing with dark energy in an attempt to scare the Angel away. The Fallen simply pocketed the sunglasses and looked unfazed by his attempt.

"Okay, number one," the Fallen answered, "you three are kinda shit out of luck if you think this," he waved a red and gold hand around at the situation lying before him, "has nothing to do with me. Number two, old ladies, _really_?"

One of the Demons flared its wings and jumped hard to go after the Angel, ignoring its fellow Demon trying to get off the ground from the first attack, but just as it reached the Fallen Angel, its eyes went wide and it banked hard away. The Fallen lifted a brow again at the sudden change in flight and lifted his hand, energy charging in the palm. "Only just realized that was a bad idea? A little late-"

He was rudely cut off by something much heavier slamming into him from above. It occurred to him maybe _this_ was what the Demon was running from just as he hit the asphalt. He barely managed to roll onto his front and stop from skidding further, sparing his wings damage. He only started to get back to his feet - not fast enough, _never_ fast enough when something managed to get into close quarters with him - when something grabbed him by his hair. All he saw was a shadowed face looking down on him with the dying sun as a halo, but the voice told him everything he needed to know about who had him.

"Well now, _Anthony_... set a trap to find a mouse and I find a rat instead."

Tony's head jerked, brown eyes narrowing and mouth tightening. Slowly, he pushed himself towards the hand in his hair, trying to alleviate the sharp sting and loosen some of the tension. " _Stane_ ," Tony hissed, venom cutting through the air, lashing from his tongue like a whip. One hand rubbed at his mouth, pulling metal across the sensitive flesh and revealing blood from a split lip. His brows rose at the sight, a slightly dark smile coming over his features painting him all shades of unhappy. "And you. Which mouse were you hoping to catch?" Snark to cover the fear of being caught, by Stane of all people.

"Wouldn't you love to know?" Stane said with a cool smirk, tilting Anthony's head back even further until his throat was exposed, until they could have looked eye to eye if Tony wasn't being blinded by the sun. Beyond the light, he caught the outline of protruding nubs on Stane's brow - the beginning of horns yet to break the flesh. Tony briefly wondered when they started; would Stane have had those nubs when they were working together, before Tony's Fall? Would Tony have even noticed them, or was he always just too focused on the world ahead of him? Those thoughts left him with a sour taste in his mouth, even more so as Stane seemed to be following his train of thought.

"You never did pay much attention what was going on around you, just caught up in your own little world."

Tony was left squinting up at the other, mouth finally stopping the slow crawl to a frown in favor of a grimace. His wings twitched, betraying the younger's almost otherwise invisible nervousness of being caught in such a situation. "My little world would involve you dead, Stane," Tony hissed, eyes lidding further to block out more of the light.

"You didn't always say that. You saw me as your idol, your friend, your confidante... you have, though, always been a fool." Stane gestured and in his hand appeared a curved dagger that seemed little more than a shadow, but Tony could feel the very real power that made it physical. The tip of the dagger touched his chest at the arc reactor, scraping across it with a squeal until the point dug into the flesh over his heart. "You'll die your Final Death a fool, with no pathetic Human to save you this time."

Tony's fingers twitched, pain flaring simultaneously at his scalp from the grip on his hair and at his chest as the dagger dug into the first layers of flesh and began the spilling of his blood. Stane's grip was too strong to break easily, but he had to try to free himself or everything would end in the instant the dagger was plunged into his heart and destroyed the source of his Life. He had survived one brush with his Final Death and didn't want to roll the dice of fate again anytime soon.

"In my defense, I'm not a fool anymore," Tony ground out, "so while I've changed, you're still a giant asshole. And speaking of assholes, when did you side with the Demons? That's why you're getting horns, isn't it? I keep wanting to make a joke about you being horny to see me but I see that you're still a bit too small for me to make that joke." He wiggled his pinky, smirking slightly.

"That's really the best you could come up with? Your sense of humor's gotten worse since you Fell. The Demons gave me a freedom I could never have as an Angel. Do you know why the Angels are so determined to destroy them? Not because they're a rebellion against God or a desecration on humanity or all those lies they fed us, but because Demons represent something they can never have. A gift that God gave to his creations on Earth but not his precious ‘children' - free will. You always toted yourself to be so _superior_ to all the other Angels because you had technology over their, what did you call it, _outdated_ weaponry, but in the end even Thor himself can't do whatever he wants because he lacks that most important gift. He's still a _slave_." Stane spat venom with that word even while the triumphant smirk remained on his lips. Tony knelt with wide eyes, ensnared by the web of words that Stane wove. "You know that though, because Falling has opened your eyes to the truth. The biggest joke in all the Heavens is that to Fall means to regain that free will you lost when you died as a Human. Do you know what the second biggest joke was? You, Anthony."

Stane pulled his head back to expose more of his chest, and Tony knew this was his last chance. Energy charged in Tony's palm as he turned, prepared to shoot Stane off of him even if it would mean the loss of a huge chunk of his hair. The knife slid across his skin leaving a cold-burning line--

Then suddenly, as Tony's gaze came to rest on his target, he saw a massive shadow block the sun, all framed by the outline of four massive wings.

The sharp cut that led away from his heart left Tony breathing in hard from the depth of his belly. Stane's hand let go and Tony rolled away, but as soon as he came up his eyes were entirely focused on the behemoth descending down on them. _How_ \-- _What_ \-- Tony's body shuddered from more than the pain at his chest; there definitely was a shade or two of fear as well. The being was easily three times his size, with its four leathery wings all hued in purple. Green skin gleamed dully in the sun and dark eyes stared down as it hit the ground with a tremor. It was a Demon on a scale that Tony had never seen before.

Stane got caught by the swipe of the creature's hand, huge in scale and incredibly quick, which sent him flying. The Demon, only inches from Tony's kneeling body, turned towards where Stane slammed into the ground and roared like a beast; the ground beneath it trembled.

Tony scrambled to his feet, ignoring the sharp sting at his chest and stood to his full height, dragging in a few breaths and staring up at the Demon that seemed to be completely ignoring him. It was after Stane; that was much was obvious, but why? Why was one Demon so determined to kill another that it would ignore a Fallen? Finally snapping his jaw closed, Tony hissed to himself before opening his mouth. "Hey, do you mind? That guy's mine." Not his best, he knew, but it'd do.

The Demon turned hard, looming over Tony. It was solid muscle and did not seem at all happy about being interrupted. It looked him over once, grunted, then casually backhanded him straight into the nearest wall. Before his vision flickered black, he saw the Demon going back after Stane.

It couldn't have been long before his vision returned because when he finally could see again, Stane was trying to fight off the Demon with his weapons that had never changed in style, but definitely changed in appearance - a pair of butterfly swords, short and brutal things meant for close-quarter fighting. Instead of the white gleam of Heaven's blessing though, they were now cast in shadow, and right now their short reach was proving a possibly fatal disadvantage as the bigger Demon seemed unfazed by the weapons. Only Stane's quick, flight-assisted jumps backwards were saving him from the beast's swipes.

Tony pushed himself up slowly, wings beating against the air as he searched for his balance. The metallic tip of his left wing sparked and gave only an irregular flap, damaged due to backhand -- Tony would have to check if anything else was damaged, but as it stood, he was definitely walking back home. He swallowed hard, Adam's apple bobbing, and slowly he began moving forward towards the fight. The rough mechanic _whrr_ and sparking of energy rendered his attempted sneaking ineffective, but the Demon's concentration was entirely on Stane. Just who, or what, did Stane piss off to have _this_ thing trying to kill him?

This was _his_ kill and he wasn't about to let some Demon - even if it was huge and fast and this was possibly one of Tony's worst ideas ever - take the kill away from him. "I said, HEY. DO YOU MIND?" Tony shouted, hand reaching up to ready his own weapon. "I told you that bastard's mine! We have business to finish--" He shot the beast with a single, powerful repulsor blast-- and oh shit, he was a dead man because it did _nothing_ to the green creature when normally it was strong enough to heavily damage most Demons. Even as he started to pump his wings to get away, Tony just wasn't fast enough to dodge the large fist shooting out that sent him flying hard back into the concrete wall.

Well, there went the rest of his wing. He barely managed to keep consciousness this time, but almost regretted doing so. The mechanical wonder that was his beautiful wing was only holding on by the bare essentials, sparking each time an electronic signal managed to get up to it. Each time it tried to flex, pain shot down through the remains of the wing and right into his chest. "Fuck." His head ached and mouth pinched together into a thin line. There was even a bigger _fuck_ when the beast turned around and came right after him as it noticed he was getting up. Maybe shooting at the giant rampaging beast-Demon hadn't been the best idea he ever had.

 _Definitely not the best idea_ , Tony thought just before the Demon grabbed him and introduced him to the dirt three inches under the asphalt rather intimately. To the list of broken body parts he could _definitely_ add his arm because it sang with flares of pain as the Demon lifted him up to deal the final blow. He could remember his life flashing before his eyes just before he died as a Human, but it seemed as a Fallen he wouldn't get that comfort. Instead, he watched in slow motion as his body was thrown up towards the sky, then the world contorted and he was going back towards the ground. His eyes closed; he wasn't about to watch his face break on the ground.

Except the world stopped, or he did at least. Cautiously, he opened an eye and saw himself face to face with the Demon, though he was very much upside down. The blood started rushing to his aching head and the golden cross Pepper had given him had worked its way out and sat hanging against his lips.

Tony squirmed like a fish on a hook; there wasn't any dignified way to describe his flailing as he braced against the pain and wriggled and writhed in the air. Tony's eyes never looked away from the acidic green irises, fascinated by what he saw contained within them. "Hi," Tony choked out. Of all the things he could have said... his brows sat high on his forehead while he wondered why the Demon wasn't dealing the final blow.

Tony gulped, wrestling against the grip, then just let his head tilt towards the ground. He winced as he saw strings of wiring and blood falling over the remains of his mechanical wing. He knew then that if the Demon wasn't going to kill him, Pepper definitely would for all this damage. Tony sucked in another breath and dared to lift his head, nearly blacking out in the process, and forced himself to lock eyes again. "You mind letting me down? I, uh, have no quarrel with you? Uh. Me no hurt you?" He was definitely grasping at straws here because he'd already proved those words to be bullshit and he wasn't about to believe the Demon was dumb enough to have already forgotten being shot.

The Demon reached out with his free hand, straight for Tony's face. There was only a moment before Tony let out a large squawk, hands and wings flailing around as he tried to bat the hand away. The Demon ignored him and instead, quite delicately, picked up the cross from his lips. The beast leaned in and studied the cross closely, thick brows furrowing.

Tony's mouth closed and then opened again, unable to figure out why, after how the Demon had treated him before, it wasn't still smashing him into the ground. Instead, the beast seemed to be inspecting the cross. When getting back home and explaining to Pepper why they'd need to remake his wing, Tony was definitely going to leave reaching out with his good hand and lightly patting the Demon's cheek. "Can you set me down?"

 _Thump._ The Demon just let go of him and let Tony hit the ground hard. The Demon watched him a bit like someone watching a bug - fascinated and deciding if it should be squished or not. After suffering the effects of having hit the ground head first, Tony did his best to ignore that heavy gaze while he popped bones back into place, biting his lip to avoid crying out. He would heal, he always would, but so much slower than Demons and Angels and even other Fallen. Only when he was finished did he finally look back up at the hulking figure above him.

Curling horns flared up from the Demon's brows, green and purple spiraling up their length much like the spread wings. It was almost more _Human_ than most Demons in some aspects, Tony realized, which was somehow unsettling. Still, since it wasn't trying to kill him now, he would do everything he could to keep it that way.

"Seriously? Ow," Tony stated casually, though he knew all too clearly that the Demon simply could step on him and kill him that way. "Could you have at least put me down more gently? I am not a sack of potatoes." The only response he got in return was a snort. The Demon turned away from the Fallen Angel, looking up towards the sky before his whole body seemed to _ripple_ like a pond being disturbed. Tony stared in a mix of awe and confused horror as a green-tinged, shadowy energy boiled along the length of the Demon, covering it, condensing, until there was a thud and the shadow dissipated leaving behind an Angel, no, a _Fallen_ Angel lying face up on the ground with a pair of black, ruined wings spread out to either side of him. Tony's brows shot up, eyes flickering from side to side, before moving forwards carefully. The other Fallen was about his height with a faint hint of chub around his midsection but in otherwise good shape, wearing a pair of hugely overstretched ragged pants and nothing else, and was very much unconscious.

"I want one," Tony rumbled to himself, grin spreading over his face as he went for his cell phone, tapping out a text.

_Come get me, Pepper. Bring a car - we have a guest. You'll never believe it. He has a nice ass._


	2. Chapter 2

" _Hnnn_..." The sound left him as he woke, dragging himself out of the depths of sleep. It was a heavy, familiar sleep that wanted to pull him back down into the depths of it and required him to fight for every inch of consciousness. It wasn't an unusual feeling but one he knew painfully well and he knew no good could come of it.

What _was_ unusual was cracking open his eyes and staring up at a ceiling that was still perfectly intact. Usually waking up from that kind of sleep meant broken buildings, open sky, or some other form of destruction all around him. Even stranger was the realization that not all of the blankets were metaphorical and in fact he was tucked up warm and almost comfortable in a very soft bed. All of this forced him to sit up in a hurry and in a heavy confusion, take in his surroundings.

The absolute last thing he was expecting was to find a man - no, another Fallen, if the stained wings were any indication - lying beside him asleep. Quickly he shed the blankets on his body and flared out his wings, giving a great flap so he could get out of the bed as swiftly as possible. He landed in a crouch several feet away before he looked around, heart racing. Where was he? Who was the other Fallen?

His wings, as tattered as they were, wrapped around him in a ragged black cloak of feathers as a crimson blush flared on his cheeks. Naked and in a room with another Fallen after a Change; already this was turning out to be a bad day.

The lump of blankets and wings on the bed started shifting as he watched with narrowed eyes - a flicker of pale toes twitching, a single wing breaking free and flapping once, a dark head of hair finally pulling free and turning towards him. "You're up?" The stranger hummed, one eye opening and studying him. "You're just barely thicker in the waist than me... I got some clothes you can wear or something."

Bruce winced away as the strange Fallen moved out of the bed towards him, who then stopped with a confused expression. "You don't need to do that, you know."

"Who are you?" He backed away from the bed until he had nowhere else left to go, backed up against the room's massive floor-to-ceiling windows. "Where am I?" Why was the other Fallen in a place like this, speaking with the relaxed tones of a man in his home?

"Tony Stark," the other said as he gestured towards himself. "You're in Stark Tower, in my bedroom." Tony took the chance to push himself up off of the bed and retreat towards a dresser.

"...Bruce." A family name hardly mattered, so Bruce didn't give it. However, one thing was very clear to him immediately - he knew that name all too well. "...You don't mean..." Things were starting to click into place. Tony Stark, the one who inherited everything Howard Stark had created. Tony Stark, the famous billionaire who had been killed while he was still young and had constructed a massive building under his family's name that stood high on the New York City skyline.

"I can tell from your expression - I'm exactly who you're thinking of," Tony said smartly as he loudly rummaged through the drawers. "If you stick around -- I mean, if you want, I'll even take you to my grave site to prove it. Totally not as awesome as I thought it'd be; Pepper says I can't actually go in and fix it though, says that's ‘not cool and people will see it as defacing a public icon's tomb', even if it's done by said dead public icon." Tony rolled his eyes and then nodded. "Well, Bruce, nice to meet you. I got some clothes over here. You should get out of your protective shell to come get them."

Bruce didn't move an inch. "How did I get here?" Not that he didn't want the offered clothing, but going near a strange Fallen was the last thing he wanted to do without caution.

Tony raised a brow, then clearly thought about what to say. A lot of things wrote themselves over his face before he managed, "There was this thing with what I'm going to call your ‘Otherside' - big, green and purple, pissed off - who went after someone I was meant to kill, etc. He didn't actually do much to me, well beyond backhand me a few times and drop me on my head. When he shrunk down, you were left and I went ‘Well, I am so not leaving a helpless Fallen passed out after his Otherside managed to save me from having my heart cut out'. Thusly, I got Pepper to come pick me and you up. Pepper's Human by the way, just so we're clear." Only a moment's pause. "So, thank you for saving me, I think you should stick around because you're awesome. I'm also a fan of the way you turn into a giant green Demon."

It was a lot of information to absorb all at once. Bruce frowned as he digested it, chewing on his lower lip. One thing was clear; he needed to apologize for what happened. "I'm sorry he hurt you. He... he tends to choose his issues with other creatures less on their alignment and more on-" He paused as he thought about his answer to that. "I have no idea what on." So instead, he shrugged. He didn't need to explain himself or his Otherside, a surprisingly accurate term he decided worked for what he previously had no proper name for, to this stranger. "Was it an Angel or a Demon?" As both had a reason to go after a Fallen.

Tony shrugged slightly and crossed his arms. "Demon." Bruce saw a hesitation in Tony's expression though, as if he wasn't sure that was the right term to apply. "Someone I've clashed with over the last two years. You know, it's really hard to talk to a guy behind wings, right?" Tony then suddenly moved forward and carefully touched a wing.

Bruce's eyes went wide at the touch and Tony got hit hard in the face with a wing as Bruce flared them both out. There was a _thud_ as his back hit the glass. No one touched him. _No one_ touched him. He looked down and saw the hints of green at his fingertips and shook his head. "Go away!" he cried out - a warning, a _threat_. He was the warning; the Otherside was the threat.

Tony had stumbled backwards at the sudden smack of the wing to his face and he then frowned, "You, uh..." He frowned and pinched his brows together. "Yeah, okay, you can get the clothes and meet me in the kitchen or something when you wanna talk? Maybe? Okay." He sighed and shook his head, setting the clothes on the bed and heading out of the room.

A slow breath out and Bruce dropped down, crouching there against the windows as he got his breathing under control, slowed his heart's racing pace. He was safe. The other had left and offered him no danger beyond a touch. It took several minutes to relax enough that the green vanished from his skin and the threat from his Otherside passed. Only then did he venture over and pull the clothing on, grateful that they were similar enough in size that he could borrow clothing and even more grateful to see the clothing was already modified to handle wings. Tony had said that he had called on a Human to help them both, which not only meant Tony was living in a Human residence and living somewhat like a Human, but that there was a Human who could see him, both of them, and working with him. While not entirely unheard of, it was... strange.

He took the time to look out of the huge windows that gave him an incredible view of the city. There was a balcony door nearby and the ninety-some story drop hardly meant anything to a being with wings, so leaving the Tower would be no problem. Yet... this strange Fallen had taken him in, didn't harm him when he changed, brought him home, and for whatever reason, slept beside him, which meant there was some degree of trust on Tony's end even if none on his own. Equally, he was very curious about this Human-Fallen arrangement Tony and this ‘Pepper' were in. It was what gave him the courage to pad out of the bedroom, wings still partially curled around him like a shield.

The first issue was that the Tower proved itself to be quite large. He had no idea where he was going. "...Where is the kitchen?" he murmured to himself.

" _Down the hall and a right turn_ ," a voice answered from nowhere and everywhere at the same time, a voice with the faintest British accent yet monotone and almost robotic in nature. " _Mr. Stark has suggested that I ask you regarding your preferred drink, if you wish to drink something at all, Mr. Bruce._ "

Bruce looked all around with wide eyes, heart rate picking right back up to where it had been only minutes before, but no one presented themselves. "Who's there?"

" _I am JARVIS_ ," the voice answered, " _Mr. Stark's personal AI. I run this tower. Would you like me to inform Mr. Stark that you are on your way_?"

A computer. His wings came down slightly and Bruce licked his lips. "...I... prefer tea, if I drink." He very rarely bothered, but it was warming from time to time and he still enjoyed the flavour on his tongue. "...Thank you." It was a touch of his past that made him be polite, even to a computer.

He followed JARVIS' directions as he took in the Tower, studying the skyline through the windows that its creator clearly preferred. Only when he saw the edge of kitchen cabinets, all sleek and burnished steel, did he stop. Listened. There was a faint hum and the sound of percolation of what he guessed was a coffee pot and a quiet, well tuned humming.

His wings fluttered slightly before he dared to step into the kitchen.

Tony looked up with a raised eyebrow at the first sound of Bruce's footstep on the hardwood floor. Bruce watched Tony's wings straighten and twitch in obvious glee and took in the smile that reached Tony's eyes. "JARVIS says you like tea; we got a huge stock. Pepper likes it to calm down. Come choose?"

Tony was incredibly expressive with his wings - more so than any Angel or Demon Bruce had seen over the years. Bruce came cautiously forward towards the cabinet Tony indicated, giving a wide berth around the Fallen. When he opened the cabinet, he found an array of small jars all neatly labeled with various kinds of tea. He started to relax, just a touch, as he studied the jars. Finally, a green tea marked ‘pomegranate' caught his eye and he pulled the jar out.

"...Do you- Pepper, I suppose- have a tea ball?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah," Tony answered without missing a beat, quickly stopping his reading of what looked to be a recipe book to go and dig into a drawer and pull one out. "Pepper has about three of them -- maybe more, I'm not sure. She's insane about it. Uh, the kettle is right there," he gestured to the steel one with a plug. "What size of mug would you want? Big? Small? Dainty?"

"Medium." Very quiet, but thankful. He looked over and took the mesh ball without touching Tony, filling it with gentle motions until it was perfect, the perfume of the green tea reaching him and offering him a small reason to relax further.

"Gotcha," Tony nodded, quickly producing a simple black mug for the other. Tony moved around Bruce to pour himself some strong-scented coffee. "So, you don't like being touched?"

"I prefer not to be." Bruce tried to keep his tone even and calm, filling the kettle up with water before putting it on the stove to heat.

"You don't need to put it on the stove. It's electric. Just plug it into a wall," Tony quickly moved to take the kettle off the coil and instead plugged it into a wall with the cord. "Can I ask why?"

An electric kettle? What was the point when there was a perfectly fine stove? Bruce frowned slightly at the idea. "You can ask, but that doesn't mean I'll answer." He hardly wanted to discuss his reasons for not wanting to be touched with a virtual stranger. A change of topic was much easier. "...It's very rare for a Human to be able to see us. From what you've said, Pepper is able." Not quite a question but not quite a comment, either.

"Fair enough," Tony mulled over the answer, but then blinked at Bruce's comment on Pepper and shrugged. "She most definitely is. You can meet her, you know, properly. I mean, she saw you naked, but she's seen me naked way too many times, so I'm pretty sure she's unfazed by nudity."

The knowledge that a lady had seen him naked caused him to blush deeply. Not that it had never happened before, but it was still... improper. "I didn't need to know that, honestly. I'll apologize when I see her." His wings curled a little more around himself.

Tony's own wings drooped when he frowned while he made up his cup of coffee. "So, Bruce," Tony hummed softly, head tilting towards the other, "you're welcome to stay around until you want to leave. I don't mind the extra company and Pepper will probably coo and coddle you. She likes new people. She won't touch, promise."

"Does she live here as well?" Bruce asked, lifting his brows. "...Why are you living like a Human?" A blunt question, but the curiosity had gotten strong enough to let him ask it. Tony, if Bruce remembered the rough time of his death, had hardly been an Angel long. There were still the small, Human imperfections in his face instead of the incredible porcelain beauty of older Angels. Yet Tony had already Fallen... there was a story behind all of this, possibly a fascinating one.

"Because she runs my company and I automatically came here after I got kicked out." Tony's brow rose and he turned his head to glance up to the part of his wing that was bandaged. The movement of Tony's gaze to his wing brought Bruce's there, studying the damage. "Fun fact, women will scream if you crawl into a bed that used to be yours when they're asleep in it. I don't suggest doing it." Tony gave a teasing grin.

"....Did my Otherside do that?" Bruce asked with a held breath as he gestured to the bandages. He knew his Otherside could do far worse, but to destroy an Angel's wings, even a Fallen... some damage could never be fully healed.

"Uh, no, not really, he smashed what was there pretty good though," Tony answered with a shrug. "I'm going to have to get Pepper, DUM-E, JARVIS, and Butterfingers to help me fix it. It's no biggie; I needed to upgrade anyways. So, you should make yourself comfortable. Want any books?"

Upgrade? What on Earth could the other mean by that? Bruce kept the question to himself as it seemed a personal one, wondering who all those other people Tony mentioned were. The last question took him by surprise. Books? "I... enjoy reading, nearly anything."

"Yeah? Okay, come with me. I'll take you to what I call Potts Library." Tony grabbed his cup of coffee and stuck a finger into the recipe book he had been reading with a small grin. "JARVIS, if Bruce finds himself staying -- get him a bedroom close to the library. Give him access to it too."

" _As you wish, sir_ ," the voice answered. " _Will that be all_?"

"Uh, remind Pepper to bring some..." Tony lifted the recipe book and checked. "Bell peppers, apples and tomatoes back home with her or get her stupid assistant to do it. I don't know. Just make it a note and let Pepper know I'm using Darcy for that." Tony paused and glanced back at Bruce. "Darcy can't see me, but I enjoy fucking with her anyways," he explained briefly before starting to walk. "Also, open up the workshop for me -- get Butterfingers to bring out the materials needed and make sure DUM-E has no access to the fire extinguishers. At. All."

" _They're being started as we speak, sir_."

"Thanks Jay, you are a doll."

" _No sir, I believe I'm Just A Really Very Important Super-computer._ "

Tony was left to make a few hybrid snort-laughs and shake his head. Bruce listened to the whole conversation in a quiet sort of awe and wonder. "JARVIS is an incredible piece of technology," he commented to Tony as he followed. He realized Tony hadn't quite answered his question about why he chose to live like a Human, but they both had their secrets, even if Tony seemed far more open with them. "Who created it?"

"I did," Tony hummed, though he paused and soaked in the praise of JARVIS' apparent striking ability. He smiled, crows feet crinkling in the corners of his eyes, and he shifted back to walk besides Bruce, stride easy and wings fluttering to show their pleasure at the comment. "And yeah, he is, I made him when I was fourteen," he rumbled, leaving Bruce's eyes to widen slightly. "I was a lonely kid in a big house all by myself. He started out text based and everything. He grew as I did." Tony's mouth thinned and eyebrows drew tight. "He grew without me too, but that's in the past. Let's get you to Pepper's obnoxiously large stash of books."

A lonely child in a big house. Memories of the past started to trickle in, bringing a flare of guilt at the back of his throat. "...and you died so young."

"Yep," Tony confirmed with a small shrug. "Died saving a kid from a car crash and everything, I don't think they actually printed that whole thing though." Tony waved his hand and gestured further into the home. "Anthony Edward Stark -- Died at age 39, July 12th, 10:05am, severe injuries to the head, chest. I bled out before anyone could get me." He shrugged. "I've read the print-ups on my death -- Apparently, I have my own day set aside for me or something."

Died a young man, Fell a young Angel. It seemed Tony did things as grandly as his attitude suggested. "A heroic death," Bruce only commented. The best way to get more information was to let Tony ramble on a topic, Bruce was learning quickly.

"Ask Pepper that when she gets back," Tony shot back with a shrug of his shoulders. He turned a corner and led Bruce into a room with wall-to-wall bookshelves, as high as the ceiling where three potted plants dangled. There was a comfortable couch and chair in the middle of the room surrounding a glass and steel coffee table. "This would be her library. Go through the books, everything's ordered by -- I don't know, probably genre. Anything I want to read is usually downloaded by JARVIS and sent to the tablet I declared as mine."

It was a beautiful sight. Bruce took it in with a feeling of high pleasure reserved for very few things on Earth. He stepped into the library and took a deep breath of the scent of aging paper, leather, and knowledge. Men of this day and age rarely respected the power of the knowledge held in these books, never crafted their intelligence. They had too much of knowledge of nothing and never knew a time without it.

His fingers brushed over a leather cover as he began to scan titles, learning Pepper's interests and where they lay. He learned quickly that she had a fondness for Alexandre Dumas, that she seemed to enjoy all incarnations of the Sherlock Holmes stories and was head over heels with something called Star Wars and parodies of fantasy stories. She had a large collection of history books, all from different time periods, but seemed most fond of the Greco-Roman era. Those he cautiously avoided, eyes drifting away from them immediately. She had hidden in a corner books that seemed untouched - all new copies, covers shining and glossy - where others, all piled around the large chair, were well-used and had lines of wear, oils from fingertips smudged across the covers. On these he lingered, studying the covers and how someone spent the time to love them, read them over and over.

"I think... I will like her," Bruce said after a long silence, maybe more to himself than to Tony. An intelligent woman read, bettered herself, and to run a company of such a size she had to have strength within. Not only that, but she was something even more special - one of the rare people who could see what moved beyond Human sight.

Tony lingered by the door, remaining quiet as he watched Bruce thumb and touch the books, carefully taking inventory and making his own assumptions of the woman they belonged to. "You going to be good in here alone?" he finally said, mouth curved into a slight smile and head dipping down with his gaze on the floor. "I gotta fix my wing and stuff." He shrugged. "I should get on that."

That possibly was the only thing that could make Bruce look away from the collection of books. "What do you mean, fix your wing?" His eyes flickered to the bandaged wings, curious. "Are you a doctor?"

"No?" Tony's brow raised. "I just, you know, fix it the way I know how. With machines and shit." The Fallen gestured vaguely and grinned slightly. "You know what, when I come back up here in about… 4-5 hours, you will see."

With... machines? Bruce grew even more confused, not sure how one could fix a wing with machines. "I suppose I will." He carefully chose one of the more well-read books and sat down, wings curled to the side and forward to be out of the way as he leaned back.

Bruce would lose himself in the book, not noticing that hours went by before the Fallen would return -- but when he did, there was a distinct female voice and a mechanical sound that accompanied him.

"Did you scare him yet?" The soft, female voice admonished, feet padding forwards. "I bet you scared him away. JARVIS, is our house guest still here?"

" _Yes, he is, Ms. Potts. He has remained in the library and has read almost two-thirds of your favourite fantasy novel_."

"See, I _told_ you I didn't scare him off!" Tony rumbled and the mechanical noise only grew as their footsteps drew closer. Bruce looked up, expecting Tony, but instead a beautiful redhead moved into the room. Tony slid in after her, his wing unbandaged and shining with gold and red metal, and Bruce wasn't sure where to look first.

"This is the first time you were right," the woman growled, reaching up to whap Tony around the head lightly before looking back at Bruce, who simply tilted his head owlishly and almost began to curl his wings around himself. "Hi -- I'm so sorry for startling you like this. I'm Virginia -- Pepper according to him," she gestured to Tony. "You can call me either if you'd like. Tony says your name is Bruce, is that right?"

"He's not a kid, Pepper!"

"No, but he's still skittish around people! I can tell!"

"Oh my god, I am so sorry, Bruce," Tony huffed. "I didn't think she'd start dancing around you like a kid in a flower meadow -- not that you're a meadow and oh okay, I am shutting up now. Yep. Zipping my lips."

"Keep them zipped then, Tony." The fondness in her voice was unmistakable, even with the sharp words and bite of annoyance that lingered near it.

"Rude, woman. You are rude."

Bruce just stared at the pair, never having seen a Fallen and a Human act so... well, very _Human_. His wings curled further around him until they were practically a cloak. "Bruce is fine," he finally said, but his eyes were torn between trying to study the Human that could see him and the mechanical wonder that was now the upper half of Tony's left wing. He stood up - better to move away from them both if necessary - but stayed in front of the couch with his wings held defensively.

"Tony says you don't like being touched. Unlike Mr. Stark, I respect this sort of thing." Pepper's hands were placed in front of her, showing him what was in them -- which was nothing but her phone. "I'm not going to hurt you either. I'm not exactly fond of hurting houseguests." She slowly moved to sit down on the couch opposite of him, making sure to keep her movements calm and steady. Tony, however, clearly wasn't all right with this and his wings twitched and jerked in his agitated state almost constantly.

"Ms. Potts should know better than to make Mr. Stark look like an asshole in his own tower," Tony sniped, before grinning back towards Bruce. "I told you I'd fix my wing. Cool, ain't it? Bees-fuckin'-knees here."

"You died, wouldn't that make it her tower?" Bruce pointed out, slowly sitting back down. "Your wing... is incredible." A true work of the modern era and beyond, in his eyes. It worked perfectly in unison with the opposite wing, as if it had been made of metal since Tony's Rebirth.

"Is her name on the giant letters? No? It's mine," Tony purred, before moving to lean onto the arm of the couch Pepper was sitting on.

"My name's on the lease," Pepper responded, looking up at him with a quirk of her brow, making him grimace and scowl.

"Anyways," Tony all but hissed. His wingtips, both mechanical and biological, flexed. "I designed and made it, yes." He preened suddenly, wings smoothing somewhat and continuing to flex in a more fluid design. "Wanna touch?"

"Tony," Pepper warned, sharp eyes shooting up to glance at him with a wary expression.

"I won't touch you," he added, glancing down to stick his tongue out at her. "You can just touch me?"

"Only you could make that sound sexual," she groaned, rubbing her face in disbelief.

Bruce didn't move from where he was sitting, shaking his head slightly. He put the book aside after glancing at the page number, his feathers slick against his body. "Why are you two..." unsure of the word, "living together?" A safe choice in terms, at least.

Tony looked alarmed at the simple question and glanced down at Pepper, who simply stared back up at Tony with a matching expression. It looked like they were having a silent conversation with just facial expressions for a long few moments before Pepper rolled her eyes and Tony looked triumphant.

"She can see me, this is my tower, and I particularly like my tower," the Fallen answered, his brow raising as he slowly drummed his fingers against the back of the couch. "Pepper and I work together. It's a good situation, I think." A slight fondness roved over Tony's expression, who spared a glance down onto the top of Pepper's head. It seemed like there was so much Tony wasn't saying, but he instead leaned down to drop a kiss to the top of her head and slid around to perch back on the couch's arm. "It's good, really good."

"Tony, you're going to scare him away," Pepper muttered, though as Tony's arm slowly slunk around her shoulders and tugged her in, the redhead really didn't do much more than lean into his body, letting the feathers on his right wing tickle her nose. "I'm really sorry," she finally muttered, leaning back away and making Tony's wing droop and his mouth thin. "So, would you like to stay a while, Bruce?"

Were they... sleeping together? Was it even possible for a Fallen and a Human to do so? The concept made Bruce's head spin and he brought a wing up to briefly hide as he felt his cheeks flush. Even after centuries, he still never found himself quite caught up to how people in this day and age felt about such things, never mind that one of the two had already died. That was a whole new complication.

"I don't know," Bruce answered honestly, fingers tight in his lap. "I rarely stay anywhere for long." Not when it was all too easy for his Otherside to come out and harm something. Somewhere. Some _one_.

"Well, you're welcome to stay here," Pepper stated firmly. "I think I'll like to talk to you about the books you're reading -- and I'm pretty sure Tony took to you like a moth to a flame," she added, voice only slightly dropping the firmness.

"I am totally agreeing with Pepper here," Tony added, suddenly feeling slightly left out of the conversation. His brows furrowed as he glanced down at Pepper and then at Bruce, eyes playful. "Maybe I'll show you my other secrets," he hummed, though Pepper smacked him lightly on the lower back making him yelp and whine. "Rude!"

"Stop that you asshole! You're going to chase him out the door!"

"He's not going to run away because I want to show him all sort of things!"

"No, but you keep being yourself!"

"And that's a bad thing?"

"You're like an attention starved kitten, Tony."

"I'm your favourite though."

"Why didn't I kick you out when I had the chance?"

"Because I'm your favourite."

"I am so sorry, Bruce."

"I'm not!"

"Perhaps I should go," Bruce finally interjected in their back-and-forth, thinking he was becoming a source of contention between them. He started to edge past them towards the door. After all, it was part of the being he had become. Something wanted by no one, the grey between dark and light, Angels and Demons. "If you'll excuse me-"

"Hey! Stop!" Tony shot up, flailing slightly, letting out an even more distressed squawk as Bruce jolted and began walking out briskly with his wings curled tight around him. "But -- I-- Pepper, help." Tony glanced back at Pepper, who was already up and following after.

"Bruce?" she quietly called, voice attempting to be calming. "I meant it, you're welcome to stay -- Tony and I just do this sort of thing often. I think you'd be good around here. It's really no problem at all if that's what you're worried about," she tried, slowing her step when she assumed she got too close. "But -- If you want to go, um, let me give you some clothes to go with and you can take the book -- it was my copy of The Three Musketeers, right?"

"No, thank you. I... I will be fine." There was something in her eyes and voice that tugged at him, something that reminded him of another time and place enough to lance through his heart. "Thank you, though." He dared this time to walk away, straight towards the room he remembered with the large balcony. He opened the balcony door and took a fast running start straight towards the edge.

Pepper ran after him, steps frantic as she caught the man's running start towards the edge of the balcony. "You're welcome back here any time!" he heard her shout after him. Bruce glanced back as he flew way up above the skyline and saw her watching him, holding onto the rail with her bright hair like a flame in the wind. Just before he looked away, the figures growing smaller in the distance, he saw Tony come out onto the balcony and draw his arms around her waist, his chin on her shoulder.

They looked beautiful together, the Human flame and the darker Fallen behind her.


	3. Chapter 3

“No and that is final, Tony!”

She had _had it_. Tony was on her very last nerve after dealing with one of the worst board meetings in months. Didn’t he understand she was fighting to keep control of the company while it felt like everyone and their brother was trying to take a piece of the action?

After dealing with that all day, the last thing she needed to come home to was Tony in one of his cabin-fever induced _moods_. He tried hard to act like nothing had changed with his death, but not being able to fully interact with the world wore on him until he started to cling tighter and tighter to her as the sole interaction in his life. Today, he kept leaning over her shoulder and pointing out each and every mistake she made while working on an important contract, acting like a kicked puppy when she asked him finally to go away and let her work.

Unfortunately for her, he didn’t go away for very long. Just as she was finishing up the last few sentences of the contract, he waltzed back into the room with a bottle of daiquiri mix in his hand and a perplexed expression on his face. “The fuck is this doing in my bar?”

Pepper barely glanced up before refocusing on the papers in her hand. “I _like_ daiquiris, thank you.”

“That’s nice,” Tony said airily, plunking the bottle down on the edge of her desk and making her brow twitch. “They’re disgusting.”

“They’re for me, not you.” _...to enforce any provision of this Agreement shall not be construed as a waiver or limitation of that party's right to subsequently enforce and compel strict--_

“I should get you into the good stuff,” Tony interrupted without even thinking, “Whiskey, scotch -- the good scotch, cognac--”

“I’m not an alcoholic, Tony.” _Like you were._ “I rarely ever sit down and have a drink. Don’t you have anything better to do? I’m a little busy.”

“No,” he said, “no, I really don’t. I believe that was the point of me being in here, talking to you. Because I have nothing to do, Pepper. I’m bored.”

“Well I’m _busy_. I’m sorry, Tony,” she said as she looked up from the contract. “I just really don’t have the time to handle your boredom right now. Isn’t there--” She stopped herself and winced internally. No, there _wasn’t_? anyone else for him to ‘go bother’. “Why not keep studying up on the nervous system? I saw the reports you left up the other night. Or... or what about taking a trip down to the Institute? Maybe Doctor McCoy would be able to help or at least point--” 

“I am not being sniffed.” Tony said with a huff. “Dogs sniff other dogs and Humans... well Humans should not sniff other people. It’s creepy and oh my god, remember when he told you that I smelt like a garage covered in really cheap cologne? The worst part? That cologne cost more than my last birthday gift to you!”

That explained why the scarf had been so eye-searingly ugly. Pepper rubbed the bridge of her nose and took a slow breath. “Tony, don’t insult Logan like that.” While Tony had issues with Logan’s... _bluntness_ , she usually found it refreshing. Usually.

“Okay, Pepper, the guy is an asshole. He sniffs me when I ask him not to -- politely! I was even polite one time. It’s rude. Really, really rude. I try to talk to him and he ignores me, I try to apologize for knocking--”

 _You mean like you’re being right now_? “He can’t _hear you_ , Tony! He can only sense Angels and Demons by smelling them!”

“Well that’s fucking useless!”

“He’s one of the Institute’s best fighters. Fine, Tony. Then don’t go to the Institute,” she snapped a bit harder than she meant to, but really, hearing him outright insulting someone that she had known since she was a child was getting even further under her skin than his annoyances earlier.

“Yeah? Is this your permission for me to go find someone new to bug?” Tony said sharply, making Pepper jump as his voice climbed louder and louder by the end of his sentence until he was almost yelling. “Does this mean I can go and find someone else who can see me?!”

“What? Tony, that isn’t what I meant! I mean- do you think I’m trying to trap you in this tower?”

“Well you sure as hell seem to be trying to,” he snarled at her. “Let’s take last night for example! What were your words? ‘Tony, don’t go after him. You’re going to just make things more complicated with him!’ Or maybe a week ago when you were yelling at me because I heard something about some buildings coming down and wanted to see if it was him and bring some clothes! Sounds to me like you’re keeping me trapped in here.”

Her hand slapped the contract down on her desk as she took a deep breath to steady herself, but when she spoke her voice was still tight. “Give the man the privacy he clearly wants. I’m not in the business of holding people hostage against their own will.” With that, she grabbed her purse and started towards the elevator because if she stayed, she was going to say something she would regret later.

“Bullshit, you want to drag him back here. You don’t want him to be alone and you don’t want me to be alone either. You think he’d be good here; we both do,” Tony shot at her back.

That was it. “You know what? Go to hell, Tony,” she snapped, picking up her phone and chucking it at his head. She regretted doing it the second it left her hand as she was supposed to be the calm one between them, but she couldn’t take it back. Instead she stabbed the elevator button to go down harder than necessary and closed her eyes tightly. Behind her, she heard Tony hiss and then the crack of her phone hitting the ground with enough force that it was undoubtedly broken.

“I’m not fixing that.”

“Tony, I am leaving. And when I come back, my phone will be fixed and you will drop this stuff about finding Bruce -- He doesn’t want to and we’re not making him.” And that was that. The elevator doors opened and she hit the button for the garage, feeling sick to her stomach when, just before the doors closed, she saw an expression of hurt on Tony’s face.

At least her meal would be quiet, but the thought didn’t cheer her up as much as it might have.

Twenty minutes later, the motorcycle parked outside of her favourite little deli and half of a cornbeef and dill sandwich in her hand, Pepper only stared at the sandwich with the distinct feeling she wasn’t as hungry as she thought she was even though lunch had been hours ago. She put the sandwich down in favor of the glass of soda and stared at the motorcycle. The sleek beauty had once been Tony’s, found in the garage long after his death and commandeered as hers. It drove Tony nuts that she rode it. He claimed it was dangerous, but the argument had been over when she said it had been _his_ and that was why she rode it.

She took another bite and for only a brief moment, Pepper stared down at her Coke and wondered what it was like for Bruce. If Tony felt so alone when he had her in his life, at least one person he could interact with and trust, what about Bruce who was so bereft of friendship that he ran even when he was offered it? She bit off another piece of her sandwich and chewed hard, thinking about the logistics of how their afterlives seemed like a punishment, but then again they had fallen from grace, so maybe that was the point. Before she knew it, the sandwich was gone and Pepper couldn’t find herself wanting to go home and face Tony. Instead, she glanced down at her plastic plate before she downed the rest of her cup of Coke in one go, then tossed both into the appropriate bins.

As she walked to her motorcycle, her eyes settled on a flock of pigeons being startled by a passerby, taking to the air so easily. She followed the flock as it fought to get into the air before it found the current and their awkward flapping turned into a graceful updraft. Her eyes moved past them and for a moment, she swore that there was a mutant, giant pigeon flying high above the flock. After a shake of her head, she took a second to blink and refocus.

She almost laughed when she realized it was _not_ a mutant pigeon and that she recognized the tattered black wings. The gloom of her argument with Tony faded into the background and a smile came to her face as she traced his flight across the sky. She didn’t know him well, that much was clear, but that didn’t quell the urge to follow him as she lost sight of him behind a building.

Climbing on top of the motorcycle, she started the engine and took off in the direction that Bruce had gone. She drove along the city streets with quick glances towards the sky, but he kept eluding her. Just as she was about to give up, she caught another sight of those wings turning down an alley. With a quick turn, she found herself staring at the large, open doors of a warehouse at the end of the alley. She drove inside, looking around cautiously as she stopped the bike and killed the engine. “Bruce?” she called softly, but got no response. Pepper frowned, brows furrowing, and she slid from the bike. Carefully she began looking around, sure this was the direction she had seen him go, but just as she got back onto the motorcycle to give up and leave, she saw it -- _him_. There was no mistaking it. It was big, so much bigger than what she expected. Her eyes widened and fingers clenched on the handles.

He easily stood almost nine feet tall and his four wings would have been a good thirty feet when spread out. What struck her the most was that even as he stared at her, she could see Bruce in the scowling face, in the shape of his cheeks and the dark eyes. They both stood very still, staring at each other.

Until her hand twisted, accidentally revving the engine.

The sudden noise startled them both. The massive Demon jerked in surprise then roared, loud enough that she could feel it echo in her chest. His wings flared out to their full length before he charged at her. Her mind _screamed_ for her to run, but even as she started to turn the bike, the Demon leaped. Even the fast cycle had no chance against the beast’s speed as he landed nearly on top of her, the force of his jump throwing the bike out from under her. The helmet saved her head as she struck the ground, but it couldn’t save her ribs as she skid and rolled into the frame of the doors she had rode in through. It couldn’t save her as the last thing she remembered was the Demon stomping right up to her.

It couldn’t save her from passing out from the pain that flared through her. 

__

***

Pepper’s departure left Tony with a sour taste in his mouth. When he finally managed to take his eyes off of the steel doors, he rested his gaze out the window to the left. He could feel a dull ache start in the pit of his stomach as he wondered if he’d managed to drive her away by accident. It wasn’t like they hadn’t fought before, just not like _that_. Not over _someone_.

He wasn’t aiming to shunt the blame off, but it just felt like he _had_ to put some of the fault to the other Fallen who’d changed the status-quo. _His_ status-quo, at least. He had been fine with people not seeing him before, though Logan sniffing him was less than savory, but he could _deal_ with it. But then Bruce showed his (perfect) ass up, shaking everything to pieces, and now it felt like he was missing something. Going back to just talking to Pepper wasn’t going to cut it and they both knew it.

Fists tightened together, fingertips digging into his palms, and he caught sight of the phone lying against the wall. He glared at it, wondering how badly it had been damaged from the throw. He _made_ her that phone, he realized with a short pause.

With that grumpy thought in mind he walked over to the phone, bent at the waist, and picked it up. With a quick look, he took inventory of how badly it was broken and knew that, thankfully, it was an easy fix. She had told him to fix it and he was going to do it, but not because she told him to. He... just didn’t want to see his technology go to waste, that was all.

Her apparent belief that she was his boss was almost infuriating at times; Tony was the one feeding the clean energy stuff to her! She wouldn’t be living in this kind of luxury if Tony hadn’t been there. He was the reason she was even alive and he deserved a little more _respect _\-- It caught him there, the dark thoughts he was having, and he shook his head free of them. Pepper was good to him and took a lot of his shit that anyone else would have walked out on long ago. He was sure Pepper was just taking a break from him; she would be back later tonight. At least he hoped so.__

__A breath he didn’t even know he had been holding ripped itself free from his chest, then he glanced up at the ceiling and asked, “JARVIS, where’s my closest tool kit on the floor? I’m going to update Pepper’s phone.”_ _

_“In the drawer next to the couch, sir. Might I suggest some recipes for when Ms. Potts returns as an apology?”_ the AI responded, almost sounding sympathetic at Tony’s plight. There was a nod from Tony and JARVIS simply clicked and began popping screens up along the way to the couch. _“I can easily suggest Ms. Potts’s favourites if you’d like or else predict the ones that she may enjoy?”_

__“Uh,” Tony blinked as JARVIS brought up a screen in front of his face. Sparing only a quick glance, he made a face and moved to sit down after he dug around for the toolkit. “Go with the braised beef rolls. What wines go good with that?”_ _

_“Ms. Potts seems to favor Barolo with that sort of dish, sir.”_

__“Yeah, okay, ah, we have any in the tower?”_ _

_“Indeed, sir, we do and might I mention that it’s refreshing to see you care so deeply about someone whom is not yourself?”_ JARVIS asked, though the words brought a slightly more inward smile to Tony’s face as he shook his head and kept silent, beginning the work on Pepper’s phone. 

__Tony found himself thinking about things that once upon a time would have him high-tailing it in the opposite direction. He had never thought himself as caring, but JARVIS seemed to think he was and Tony was inclined to believe him._ _

__He had never really thought he’d want to cook for another person in his life (unlife? He wasn’t sure), but that had quickly changed after his coming back to the Tower after his fall. A few months of watching her try to maintain her figure, spending hours in the gym after her schedule forced her to grab take-out most nights, made him worry about her health. He had decided to start cooking for her then and damned near killed her the first few times he tried... but he’d gotten better and it had become a thing between them. Tony would make Pepper’s work-lunches and their dinners, both putting aside a day to have take-out so Tony could have a rest from it. It was one of many things that Tony realized he never thought he’d want to do for someone else, even when he had been at his loneliest and alive._ _

__He hadn’t been all that worthy of the wings he had when he was alive, buried in his work, drinking too much, sleeping with almost anyone. He had really thought he would be going to hell, had joked about it enough during his life, but hadn’t really _cared_. It wasn’t like he believed in a god or heaven or anything like that; when you died, you died. They buried your cold corpse in the ground and that was that, so live life to the fullest and all that._ _

__Then he had decided to do something crazy like throw himself in front of a bus to save a little girl._ _

__He remembered her tiny freckled face crying, asking if he was going to be okay, and then some white light taken out of every goddamned bad novel and television show and religious nutjob had come down around him and swallowed him whole._ _

__Heaven had been beautiful, with high-rises that lingered over a perfect horizon, skyscrapers that went so far up endlessly into the blue sky, and the _hum_ of every city there ever was or would be. There was no smog, no pollution in the water that flowed through the river that surrounded the city and dropped off into a waterfall that led who-knew-where, no reek of sewers as he walked along the streets. Sleek technology was everywhere, computers that kept him busy with learning how to use them -- they were so advanced that it had made his head spin._ _

__It had been _his_ heaven. Even with the Angels who mocked him for his ideas and pride in the new and efficient weapons, who thought his pride in them would be his downfall (they were right), it had all been his. At first, he’d thought everyone saw it like he did, until he had met Rhodes. Rhodes had been the first Angel who had been curious about his gauntlets, who hadn’t given looks of confusion or shaken head at him. Of course Tony had been all too eager to show off his newborn weaponry._ _

__In retrospect, his fall had all been because of a stupid decision. A stupid, _stupid_ decision that he believed hadn’t warranted the punishment of being cast out of paradise._ _

__He only surfaced from his memories thanks to a loud crash coming from the balcony attached to his bedroom. With eyes wide and confused, he set the phone down. “JARVIS--”_ _

_“Your gauntlets are currently three floors down, sir. The camera has been knocked out in your bedroom; I would proceed with caution.”_ Tony’s mouth thinned into a line and he glanced around and then shook his head. 

__He had two choices here. He could waste time and travel down three floors in an elevator and possibly give whomever - _whatever_ \- a chance to get him off-guard, or he could just run in there guns-not-so-a-blazing and hopefully catch the intruder off-guard. He thought for a few seconds and then looked up towards the ceiling and counted to three, before stating a firm; “Mute.”_ _

__He took off, darting down the hallway, skidding to a stop as he threw open the door to the bedroom arms flailing. The door almost swung off of its hinges at the force he used, which had been intended to scare the intruder but made him jump instead, because he never would have expected to see what stood before him._ _

__It was Bruce’s Otherside, standing there making the room feel very small. The crash had to have been the balcony doors as they were currently nothing more than a bunch of twisted metal and a spray of shattered glass across the floor. The Demon was shaking more from his broad shoulders and his top set of wings. Something was held in his arms, covered protectively by his lower set of wings._ _

__Tony’s mouth opened and closed, eyes wide and body tense. “Hey, uh. Buddy, can you-- What’s--” His voice failed him. Bruce’s Otherside didn’t seemed to be hurt, but he couldn’t make out what the Demon was holding. “Hey, let me clear off the bed and you can show me what you got there, okay?”_ _

__The Demon didn’t wait. His wings pulled back, tucking behind him, to reveal Pepper lying in those massive arms. Her head was lolled back on her neck, body limp in the Demon’s grip. Bruce’s Otherside grunted low, then actually rumbled, “HURT.” She looked tiny in his arms, cradled against the big green body, pale and, suddenly, he realized he couldn’t tell if she was breathing._ _

__Tony’s breathing picked up -- later, when he wasn’t having a mental freak-out about not being there to save Pepper, he’d probably laugh at his reaction. The high-pitched noise that came from him as he jerked around and pulled the first blanket off, sending pieces of glass skittering to the opposite side of the room with the force of his yank._ _

__“Set her down here, Buddy,” Tony managed, voice tight and wings straight and puffed out, quivering with worry. Tony almost felt like he was suddenly watching the scene in front of him from far away as the Demon gently - actually _gently_ \- set Pepper onto the bed. He bit back the surely sad sound that wanted to tear itself free from him. He couldn’t lose her, not like this._ _

__Shaking hands reached out and pressed themselves against her chest, feeling the rise and fall and beneath that the strong beat of her heart. It washed over him, soothing back his panic when he realized she was still alive, just unconscious. It lulled him in, his eyes closing as he counted each breath, until suddenly a sharp noise jerked him out of it. Tony looked back at the Demon who was folding his wings again; the crash must have come from the now broken picture frame lying on the floor nearby. Even as large as his bedroom was, there just wasn’t enough room for the Demon’s full wingspan, but Bruce’s Otherside kept fanning them out and back again in clear agitation._ _

__“Thank you, holy fuck, thank you so much -- how, what, oh god, who?” The questions and words sputtered out of Tony without reprieve, body and wings taut, eyes worried and full of fear for Pepper._ _

__The Demon said nothing, but one big green hand reached out and, almost child-like, poked Pepper’s shoulder. Then again. If Tony could guess, it was the Demon’s way of showing he wanted Pepper to wake up. “I’m with you--” He started before he realized he had no idea what this Demon’s name was._ _

__“What should I call you, Buddy?” Tony asked quickly of the Demon, though eyes didn’t move from the woman on the bed as he tried to figure out what to do._ _

__“HULK.” A beast of few words, it seemed._ _

__“We should call 911,” Tony said as he came to a decision, staring down at the woman. “Like, right now. JARVIS? 911, now.”_ _

_“And how will you be conversing with them, sir?”_

__“Uh. What I say. You say?”_ _

_“I’m unsure if that was a rhetorical question or not.”_

__“I don’t need 911, Tony,” came the quiet, thick response from the bed, making Tony blink and look over sharply to Pepper who was looking at him groggily._ _

__“Scratch that, she’s alive-- I mean, awake. Yeah, she’s awake.”_ _

_“Consider the call scratched, sir.”_

__

____

***

She came to, felt a weight to her left, the presence of something to her right, and heard Tony fret loudly about what he was supposed to be doing. Something about 911, JARVIS’ reply... when the memories of the great Demon and a flash of pain came to her mind, she put two and two together. “I don’t need 911,” she managed to get out through a dry throat and a thick tongue. Forcing her eyes open was a little harder, but it let her see Tony’s worried face hovering over her and beyond him, the Demon that was Bruce’s Otherside.

It made her jump, just slightly, to see him there. The reflexive motion made her gasp in pain as a twinge went all down through her side, her body informing her she was definitely hurt, definitely shouldn’t move. Then came Tony’s hands trying to settle her back down and that hurt even more, so she gave a loud hiss and weakly tried to swat his hands away. “Tony, _stop_ ,” she said with a wince, watching Tony pull his hands back and his mouth thin. “Don’t make that face,” she added with a frown at the way he wilted as well. “Go get me a drink or something? Painkillers?”

“We don’t know if you have any ruptured... well _anything_ , Pepper,” Tony defended. “You need to see a doctor--”

“I’ll go tomorrow?”

“JARVIS, did she just _seriously_ state that as a question?”

_“I do believe she did, sir.”_

“Pepper, you’re hurt.”

“It’s a few bruised ribs, Tony. I’ll live,” she insisted. The last thing she wanted to do was try to explain just how she had gotten hurt to the local hospital. “Can you get me some painkillers? And some bandages? We’ll wrap my ribs up--”

“Pepper, don’t move,” Tony warned, pointing at the Demon with a serious expression that made Pepper crack a bit of a smile. “Watch her, don’t let her get out of the bed, okay Hulk? We on the same page?”

The Demon grunted and Tony left, giving Pepper one final look. She looked up to the Demon, honestly still surprised that he was standing there in Tony’s bedroom. “...Is that your name? Hulk?” At his grunt that sounded like an agreement, she smiled slightly. “Did I scare you, in the warehouse?”

The Hulk just stared, then said bluntly and quite loudly, “HURT.” It was difficult to tell if he meant he had hurt her or that she had been hurt, but either way the displeasure showed at it having happened. She reached out and with slow movements, touched his hand. When he didn’t pull away, only looked down to watch what she was doing, she stroked her fingers over the broad, calloused knuckles.

“I’m okay, I think,” she answered and pet his hand a bit more. “You were worried?” Finally, it hit her that the balcony window was ruined, there was glass across the floor, and there was only one reason it would look like that when the Demon was standing in the bedroom. “You brought me home?” she quietly asked, to which she got another agreement grunt.

“How did you know to bring me here?” She stared up at him, trying to read his face, though from the downward turn of his mouth and almost dubious look, she realized that it was all she was going to get out of him. “You know what? Doesn’t matter. You brought me here when I was hurt and that’s the important part. You saved both Tony and me and that makes you _and_ Bruce welcome here.” She struggled to sit up, wincing and pausing, as she tried to get into a better position to look up at him.

She swore he looked unsure of the words that she directed at him, like he couldn’t exactly _trust_ them (or maybe he didn’t understand them) and for a moment, she could see Bruce mirrored in in his eyes in the way he just seemed like he was waiting for her to tell him to leave. Her thoughts were cut short by Tony knocking on the wall instead of the open door; Pepper’s head whipped towards him and saw the bandages tucked haphazardly into his pocket, a glass of water in one hand and the painkillers in the other.

“Buddy? She do something like try to move away?” Tony asked. The look Pepper fixed on him left him about ready to laugh, she could tell.

“I’m still mad at you,” she directed at Tony, “but a lot less than I was earlier. You worked with him to make sure I was comfortable.”

“He did most of it, actually,” Tony said as he walked over and sat on the bed, offering her the painkillers and water.

She popped them into her mouth and, even though each swallow sent a twinge through her ribs, drank the entire glass of water. It felt incredible to her dry throat. When she finished, she let out a gasp of relief and leaned back into the pillows. The Hulk stood there, watching her with his unreadable gaze. “You can sit down, Hulk,” she offered to him, not really thinking it through.

Because the Hulk did as he was told, sitting down hard on the very edge of the bed. Which sent the opposite side of the bed where Tony was sitting suddenly jerking up, throwing Tony up and off the side of the bed onto the floor in a spill of limbs and wings.

Pepper stared at Tony on the floor, trying to figure out what the _hell_ just happened, before she turned her head to stare at the Hulk. The Demon looked so utterly confused, probably just as confused as she was, that it made her start laughing despite how much it hurt to do so.

“Did I just get thrown off the bed?” Tony asked, peeking up over the edge of the bed at Pepper, which just made her laugh harder. “J, did I just get tossed off the bed? Like, you know, for confirmation?”

_“Indeed you did sir, shall I bring up a screen so you can rewatch it?”_

“What? No! I don’t-- Pepper, stop laughing, you’re going to hurt yourself!”

“I can’t help it!” Pepper got out, wrapping an arm around her side and trying to hold her bruised or broken ribs so they would stop complaining. “You are the least graceful Angel that’s ever existed, Tony Stark.”

“I am not!” Tony huffed, fixing her a look. “Besides, the only Angels you’ve ever seen are-”

Tony stopped as they both heard the Hulk much a very unpleasant sound, one that sounded almost like a growl. They looked over as the Hulk turned away from them both and watched as the huge body seemed to melt into shadow, twisting and writhing until left by their bedside was a Fallen Angel in the remains of his pants and black wings.

“Tony, we need to get him stretchy pants,” was the first thing out of Pepper’s mouth, as Tony frowned and moved around to check if Bruce was left awake. Before he could fully get around the bed, however, Bruce was pushing himself up, groaning quietly as if in pain. His wings fluttered, spreading fully before he looked around.

Then he turned and stared at them both, lips parting in shock before he tried to get up in a flail of limbs and wings and judging by the look towards the balcony, was ready to make a break for it.

“Bruce!” Tony called, quickly blocking Bruce’s path and daring to reach out and touch his shoulders. “Stop, relax. We’re not going to hurt you -- Pepper’s hurt enough. Your Otherside did bring her here though, so there’s that,” Tony muttered as Bruce’s wings curled protectively around him and forced the feathers into his mouth. In turn, Tony started sputtering, blinking the feathers out of his eyes and sneezed loudly three times, leaving Pepper to start laughing again and then whimper in pain.

“You’re ridiculous,” she croaked, covering her chest, enjoying the sight that the two gave her.

“She’s hurt?” Bruce stopped, looking back at Pepper on the bed. His wings sat close against his body, hiding himself from view, as he stepped a little closer. “...I... if you’ll let me help... I have some skill in healing.”

“Snuck into medical school to learn?” Tony questioned, earning a faintly dark look from Bruce, but glanced at Pepper who nodded. “Well, go ahead, she’s all primed to get touched by you.”

“Stop making everything sound dirty, Tony,” Pepper muttered, but smiled at Bruce. “I startled him with a motorcycle --” she caught Tony’s horrified look and only looked more smug with herself. “I think he brought me back here because he knew I belonged here.”

“Yeah, I’m installing sliding doors with motion sensors,” Tony muttered under his breath.

“You mean he hurt you?” Bruce sounded as horrified as Tony looked. He knelt on the edge of the bed, careful of his wings. His hands tenderly checked her ribs. “...I’m so sorry,” he whispered to her alone.

“I shocked him,” Pepper reaffirmed. “He doesn’t seem to like loud noises either,” she replied in a way that left her shaking her head, “but I might not be above using this to keep you around.” She pouted only slightly, wincing when he touched a tender spot.

“He... doesn’t handle people very well and has been fighting and killing Demons and Angels for so long, he considers almost anything an attack, from what I can tell.” His tone suggested he wasn’t entirely sure of that though, almost like he was speaking about an experiment. “Helping someone is... new.” His voice was soft, thoughtful, until he shook his head as if to clear it. “Do you have tight bandages or tape? ...Her ribs will need to be bound until they heal. I can help them along with my healing, but in Humans I still believe their medicine is best used on them.”

“We got bandages right here,” Tony said, yanking the bandages out of his pocket and tossing them towards Bruce. Pepper stifled another giggle as Bruce scrambled to catch it. “Those will work right?”

Bruce studied them before nodding. “They’ll do, thank you.” He shifted his stance so he was fully seated beside Pepper. “This is why I try to avoid staying near people; they always end up hurt.” Not sad, not quiet, just stated as a fact of his life.

“We’re well-equipped for that sort of thing,” she stated. “Tony blows himself up and do you think his wing doesn’t get wrecked all the time? Because it definitely does. Just wait until you see Tony without his shirt. Give it a chance? It must be lonely being away from people all the time.” She reached out and tried to touch his shoulder, to give him that small, Human connection.

Clearly that was a no-no because immediately Bruce stood up and out of her reach, then pulled his wings around him. His quick motion startled her slightly and she stared at him in confusion. She could see his cheeks were red and it took her a moment to realize part of the problem. “Drawers over there, middle left should have sweatpants.”

“Thank you,” Bruce said before he walked over. Protecting himself in the front gave her a lovely view from behind, making her bite her lip, looking almost secretly appreciative of the view and agreeing with Tony’s text observation from a week ago.

“If you stay,” she started instead of pointing out what she could see, “we could help you and you could help us. Neither of us know anything medical and Tony has a con--”

“I have a damaged heart,” Tony provided, crossing his arms over his chest and frowned at Pepper with an eyebrow raised questioningly at her. “Can you stop talking about me like I’m not here, by the way?” Tony looked so visibly miffed by the light being shone on something so private that the injured woman felt a bit bad over bringing it up at that point.

“Tony don’t--” Pepper sighed and rubbed her face carefully.

“Bruce, uh, there’s some t-shirts if you want something for your chest too. I gotta finish fixing Pepper’s phone. I’ll be back soon,” he muttered, turned on his heel, and left.

Bruce stood there awkwardly with his hands in Tony’s drawers, looking back and forth between Pepper and the doorway where Tony had gone, with the clear look of someone who wasn’t sure they should actually be there. “I-” he began with a tone even more awkward than his expression, but it faded as he wasn’t sure what to do.

“It’s okay. It’s just... a sensitive subject for him.” Pepper frowned to herself and then shook her head. “Tony’s heart was damaged when they cast him out of Heaven. He’s got an power source in his chest keeping it running. Some fusion of Angel-mojo and something he had from when he was alive --”

“It’s not ‘ _Angel Mojo_ ’. Goddamnit Pepper!” Tony shouted, poking his head in and proving he hadn’t actually left to fix her phone. “At least call it by its name--”

“--He has no idea what an ‘arc reactor’ is, Tony! How else am I supposed to explain it?!”

“I don’t know! Just don’t call it ‘ _mojo_ ’. Jeez, are we tweens now?”

“You are both very strange,” Bruce said as he looked between them both, cautiously pulling on the sweatpants before his wings laid back behind him. “You mean the power that makes Angels, well, _Angels_? It’s actually very similar if not basically the same as what gives Demons their power, not the opposite even though the colors are as such-” He caught himself and stopped, rubbing his nose. “Excuse me. It actually sounds very intriguing.”

“He speaks English,” Tony proclaimed and stared at him. “After you wrap Pepper up like a present, we should go see my lab. Wanna see it? It’s pretty and blue and I bet you’ll cream yourself when you--”

“Tony, I swear to god, I am going to kill you if you don’t shut up,” Pepper stated sharply, giving an apologetic look to Bruce. “He’s like an over-excited kitten with yarn when you give him new things.”

“I am not. I take offense to that,” Tony snorted, eyes rolling. “I’m like a cat that got into the catnip. Get it right.”

“Bruce, please save me from this idiot?”

“Rude!”

“Enough please?” Bruce said, looking very much like a father standing over his fighting children. As Bruce walked back over to the bed, Pepper caught Tony sticking his tongue out at her; she rolled her eyes at him as Bruce helped her get into a better position. “This is going to hurt, but to get your ribs into proper alignment I need to get them bandaged right the first time.”

“I can handle it,” Pepper nodded towards him. “Should I take my shirt off?” she questioned, her head tilting slightly, while Tony kept making silly and childish faces at her over Bruce’s shoulder. Bruce’s cheeks turned red again and he swallowed once before nodding.

“You’ll have to. Again, I’m sorry.” A doctor perhaps, but clearly a shy one.

“Don’t worry,” she replied with a small shake of her head, slowly moving to take the shirt off. She barely got it lifted before she gasped in pain and Bruce had to help her. “Bra too?” She moved very slowly to reach back and unhook her bra, ignoring Bruce’s tomato complex. She didn’t miss Tony’s brows go high on his forehead.

“Congratulations, Bruce, you’ve officially gone further with Pepper than I have.”

“Tony!” Pepper cried out nearly at the same time Bruce did.

“What? It’s true!”

“I’m trying to make sure she heals right and you are a complete pervert!” Bruce said back, wings fluffing up in natural reaction against the fighting the same way Tony’s often did. He worked quickly after that, his motions precise but careful as he pulled her ribs tight and into place, making sure the bandages would do their work. “...You may have to tighten them each morning, but between this and my healing, it will be a swift recovery.”

“Cold,” Tony replied sulking, though kept peeking over his shoulders. “You should stay around so she doesn’t overwork herself.”

“Tony,” she warned, but smiled up at Bruce. “You should stay for exactly the reasons Tony just said and because we like you. It’s weird, but we do.”

“Thank you. I’m right all the time; I’m glad you noticed.”

“I haven’t exactly seen when you were right,” Bruce muttered so quietly only Pepper could hear it, she was fairly sure. “Maybe,” louder, for all of them now, “maybe I could stay... for a little while.”

They shared a look and smiled back at Bruce. “Thank you.” Pepper’s smile was way too wide and pleased with herself as she slowly reached up to pat Bruce’s cheek lightly. “We’ll get you a bedroom right away.”

“I don’t sleep very much,” Bruce said quietly, tying off the last of the bandages. Pepper stared curiously as he placed his palms just barely touching the bandages and closed his eyes. Warm yellow light began to glow from his hands as he concentrated. When the light died, Pepper took a deep breath with far less pain than she had been in and Bruce stood up and looked away, curling his wings back around him awkwardly.

Tony frowned and raised his brow. “It’s still nice to have a place where you can sleep when you need it,” he stated, whereas Pepper touched her bandaged ribs in awe before she began carefully pulling her shirt on, this time without help.

“Tony, go show Bruce to where he’ll be staying.”

“Do I have to, Mom?” he whined mockingly, though his eyes moved to Bruce and stayed pinned on him. “Yeah, let’s go show you to a room.”

There was a faint hint of distrust in his expression, but he nodded for Tony to lead to the way. Pepper sighed, closed her eyes, and laid back exhausted into the pillows. Already today was too long for all of them.


	4. Chapter 4

"I don't bite," Tony started as he led Bruce down the hall, "unless you're into that, then I bite all the time." Tony's brows waggled, gaze focused on Bruce and lips curling upwards at the corners. He suddenly stopped, making Bruce thump against his back and stumble backwards. "Hold up," he said and held a hand up a little too late. Squinting as he thought, Tony went over the layout of the Tower in his head. Eventually he settled that there was a room on Pepper's floor that was mostly unused; he assumed it would work and Pepper probably would prefer to have the other near her anyways. Rolling his eyes, he glanced back, ignored Bruce's faint scowl, and nodded out the door. "Okay, I got one. Let's go." He began heading towards the elevator, talking as they walked. "So, the room is close to the library and Pepper's room. My room," Tony jerked his thumb backwards, "is the one we were in. You comprendo?"

" _Sí, yo hablo español, gracias,_ " Bruce said quietly.

"You speak Spanish, then? Nice." Tony made a mental note to check what other languages Bruce knew. He thought he heard a hint of something in Bruce's voice he couldn't place, but only shrugged it off. They went down to Pepper's floor and he led Bruce to the room, gesturing inside with a wave of his hand.

"This is yours until- well, whenever really." He thought Bruce would be pleased; after all, the bedrooms were all designed to be as luxurious as possible, but instead he saw a very blank expression on Bruce's face as the other Fallen studied the room.

He didn't expect Bruce to suddenly say, "I'm sorry he's caused you so much trouble."

"What?" It was out of left field and it took Tony a second to realize what Bruce meant. "Oh, don't worry about it. Your Otherside... I mean -- he brought Pepper here, stayed to make sure she was okay. Can't ask for more than that, right?" Tony snorted and gestured for Bruce to go into the room completely. "Go, make yourself comfortable. I'll start looking into other things for you to wear."

"Anything loose, and cheap," Bruce said with a hint of dry sarcasm. "There's no point in anything expensive as it'll end up destroyed on the inside of a week."

"Yeah, yeah." Tony rolled his eyes. "So, you really do like my wing, huh? Prize-winning science fair shit and all that, right?"

"Well," Bruce started as he moved just a touch closer, eyes focused on the wing in question, "you've built artificial muscle that flexes nearly as smoothly as the original organic. I find that very impressive."

Tony took a step back -- though he really would've preferred to step forwards instead. "Yeah, that would be the basics. I got something that kinda beats that though. The thing Pepper mentioned." Tony gave a slightly wary grin and then went to start unbuttoning his shirt slowly. He could see the other's gaze snap to the sudden glow that was shown. "Like she said, I do got something set in my chest. Kinda beats the wing by far, especially when you think about the practical applications for it in general."

As Tony pulled his shirt off, Bruce's expression changed to one Tony knew well - one of a man who saw science before him and wanted to know more of it _immediately_. The expression struck him closer than he really wanted. However, it was tempered by a good-natured politeness not to just stare as Bruce's eyes came back up to his face almost as if he was asking permission. Tony found himself wanting to pick the hybrid's brain, figure out what he knew and how to take it and polish it, make it something Tony could use and rely on. Bruce's face was cast into shadow and light in the harsh glow of blue-stained metal and Tony could see Bruce's eyes fall back down to it, tracing the barest of hint of fractals leading away from the circle. "Take a look. It's called the Arc Reactor."

From the change in Bruce's expression, it was another person in awe of his work. The other stepped forward until he could study it more closely, eyes flickering over scar tissue and socket, trying to visibly pick it apart. "A creation of science and Angelic power.. incredible." His eyes moved up slowly to the scar directly over Tony's heart, and a light of understanding came to the dark eyes. Tony let out the breath he didn't think he was even holding, watching Bruce stare in awe at the circle in the middle of his chest that melded the scientific and the supernatural, commenting on it as if it was the most interesting thing he'd ever have seen. Once again, even beyond the awe, there was something Tony couldn't quite read in Bruce's expression.

"You can get a bit closer, not going to flinch away."

Another step closer, eyes narrowed in the blue light, and Bruce went silent as he took it in. Finally, after a good solid minute of that silence, he stood back upright so their eyes met. "Your heart was damaged - a fight would be my guess. You Fell young." A very blunt tone, the look of curiosity and _science_ in Bruce's eyes enough to override his nervousness around Tony.

"Well that, Bruce," Tony stated quietly, "isn't something I can tell you right now." He realized that unconsciously, his wings were inching around his shoulders, as if they were going to pull the same move Bruce had done many times, so he forced them flat against his back. "Stay around and maybe you'll find out the answer," he then added quickly to hide the feeling of grief that seemed to start to envelop him. There wasn't a place for that right now, not with Bruce staring at him like that.

Bruce picked up on his cue and seemed to realize quickly that it was territory that was none of his business. He stepped away, his eyes sliding back to the windows - anywhere but Tony. "Thank you for showing me; you didn't have to." Bruce said tightly, pulling back from those few moments Tony was sure he saw more of the real Bruce and less of the shields - mental and physical - surrounding the other Angel.

It made him frown, made him want to reach back out for Bruce and though he didn't, the need to see the person behind the shields became part of the forefront in his mind. "Hey, it's no problem, you seem to understand how it works." Only a brief pause. "Maybe you should come down to my lab. See all my awesome toys - it's like Candyland except for Engineers and other like-minded folk."

"Lab?" There was that spark of interest again, looking to Tony again. "What kind of lab?" Clearly this was some area of interest for Bruce. Tony planned to use that interest to open up Bruce and leaned forward with a smarmy grin.

"A science lab that involves all of the awesome things," Tony answered, knowing the mystery of what would come would make his response all the sweeter.

Very slightly, Tony saw Bruce's wings fluff up in response, but his eyes were still guarded beyond his curiosity. "I'd like to see it."

"Well then," the taller Angel thrummed, almost buzzing in his skin. "C'mon, let's go then. You'll love it. Like I said - I got all of the cool toys." Tony bounced on his heels and tilted his head towards the other, jutting his chin towards the elevator. "So, Bruce," Tony said, taking a chance while he could, "you're not going to let me like, put a hand on your shoulder, are you?"

"I would prefer if you didn't," Bruce said, keeping an eye on Tony now that he asked. He did follow Tony though, wings tight against his back. As Bruce moved up beside him, Tony took in the condition of the other's wings. They were in miserable shape, and that was saying something coming from a Fallen with one scarred wing and one half mechanical. The black feathers were tattered, torn, missing.

"All right, no touching you." Tony nodded, taking careful inventory of each and every feather along Bruce's wings. "Maybe sometime we can share the stories of why our wings are the way they are."

"...My wings?" Bruce lifted a wing slightly, looking at it before looking back. "They've always been this way." Didn't seem particularly concerned about it, but there was something in his eyes that suggested there was a story behind those words he didn't want to discuss.

Tony's head bobbed a few times. "Really? That's... neat." He watched, he waited, he gestured to the private elevator's doors. "Well then, maybe you can instead tell me about what branches of science you find interesting?"

Bruce stepped inside and Tony forced away the annoyance that Bruce always seemed to be watching him, as if he was going to get attacked any second. Instead he kept a smile on his lips as Bruce spoke about finding nearly any field of science intriguing but found himself focused on nuclear physics, biology, and for some time now, what biological changes occurred after they died that made them become an Angel or Demon as they still clearly had their own bodies on the other side.

It was ridiculously interesting to Tony, his eyes widening and mouth opening as he seemingly hung off of every word that Bruce spoke. His fingers itched and he seemed to grow more and more excited just listening to him talk about things that would make the Fallen usually roll his eyes at (due to most who spoke on the subject being extremely below his level) -- but Bruce...

"You are definitely going to love this place," he assured once more as they came down to the proper level, eyes bright and wings fluffed as the elevator doors whooshed open and a large clean lab was opened to Bruce's eyes. He gave himself the right to watch the other's expression go from surprise to shock to awe, and knew he had Bruce hooked in an instant.

Exactly what Tony wanted.

***

It was still somewhat disconcerting to wake up in a place he barely knew, even after all of his centuries moving around the world. Bruce glanced around once, reaffirming that yet again he was waking up in the same place, before he rubbed his cheek across his pillow and let his mind drift while he was still cocooned in warmth. The light streaming in from the dawn beyond the huge windows barely touched his eyelids, so for a while he was content not to move.

The room Bruce had been given was massive in his eyes. It contained a bed large enough for three if not more and he only took a small portion of it. Even the attached bathroom was larger than some places he had lived in over the years.

Humans, he mused in his drifting wakefulness, had become more ostentatious as commodities became easier to acquire. A private man living in a massive skyscraper was just a modern upgrade on the private man who lived in a huge villa with sweeping grounds, spreading up instead of spreading out, but even Tony Stark had possibly taken it much farther than most. Perhaps that was being a touch unfair to Tony, as Bruce had quietly prowled through the depths of the Tower as much as he had been given access to, and saw that a fair number of people worked in the building. He did, however, question the empty floors and decided that the whole building was just a bit ridiculous to the point of being a very phallic symbol of one man's ego.

Still, Heaven had decided there was _something_ good in Tony Stark to have given him his wings upon his death. At some point, something had happened with Tony that ended with him Falling. As much as Bruce wondered about what that something was, he was quickly learning better than to push the subject. It had become a sort of give and take between Tony and himself, learning the boundaries of just what they could ask before the other pulled away - even if Tony pushed far more than he.

Somehow though, despite his reservations, a Human and a Fallen had convinced him to stay in a location where there was an increased potential that _he_ could do incredible amounts of damage. They had only seen a small part of his Otherside, possibly the ‘best' of his Otherside at that, and he feared that their lax reactions would have the Demon turning on them when they least expected it.

Yet... his Otherside's actions towards this pair were something unusual in and of themselves. It was difficult for him to believe, even when Tony had showed him the recorded footage of what the Demon had done while in the Tower. How his Otherside had been gentle in his actions, worried or concerned. As far as Bruce knew, those were all new emotions that he never would have thought his Otherside to have. There had been no incidents since Pepper's injury, for which he was grateful, but what did it mean that his Otherside acted differently around this strange pair?

He sighed into his pillow and held it a little closer to his body, shifting a wing so it spread out across the bed in a black mess. It was still early, as it seemed the others in the household rarely woke before the late morning, early enough that he could sneak down and raid a bit more of Pepper's large stash of tea. Having a ready supply on hand was a luxury and one he was loathe to give up until he had to. It did, however, mean getting up out of the comfortable warmth that was his bed and going down to the kitchen. A hard choice he rarely ever got to make, and the fact he was having trouble deciding made him chuckle.

"You should laugh more often," came a sudden voice from across the room and Bruce jerked up, wings flaring as the voice startled him out of his cozy, drifting state. There Tony stood in the doorway, looking a bit surprised at Bruce's sudden alarm, a plate of food in one hand and a cup in the other. "It's a good sound."

Bruce's lips tightened and his eyes dropped back down to the pillow, but he still caught how his tension made the Fallen's wings twitch nervously. "I made you tea and eggs and bakey. You should try." Tony's voice was softer than it had been before, brows pinched tight together and he seemed to calculate each step until he was next to the bed. "I, ah, the door was open, so I assumed you were awake or something."

"...I must have forgotten to close it," Bruce said, offering a touch of forgiveness in his voice. They had startled each other; nothing bad had come of it. That in of itself was... surprising. There was no desire to run, no blacking out as he changed, just a slowing heartbeat and resettling himself in bed.

With Tony so close, he could smell eggs and toasted bread and was reminded all over again of just how strange Tony was for an Angel, even a Fallen. Over the last few days, he had watched as Tony _ate_ on a regular basis, as if he was still Human. Tony's head bobbed before he sat down, his weight settling on the bed as the plate was set between them.

Bruce studied the so-very-Human breakfast before he quietly asked, "Why do you eat?" He didn't miss the sudden blink and jerk of Tony's head despite an expression that stayed passive, brown eyes focusing on his face and then darting away soon after, and the mechanical _whrr_ filling the air with each and every flick of the nervous wings.

"A comfort," the other managed with a shrug. "Something that reminds me I'm here -- I'm doing something. That I'm not just existing in the background."

"This isn't our world. This is the Humans' world. We do exist in the background." Bruce tilted his head, studying the other before looking down at the plate between them, when he caught, from the corner of his eye, the brief wince that his words wrought from Tony. When he had been alive, he had been able to cook for himself even if the food was simplistic at best. There had been someone else though, a woman--

"Technically," Tony started, interrupting Bruce from his thoughts, "this is _our_ world. After all, Fallen don't belong up there," Tony gestured towards the ceiling, "and we sure as hell don't belong in... well, you know, Hell."

"I wouldn't know about that either," Bruce said flatly. "If I ever went to either, I can't remember." Angels went to Heaven. Demons went to Hell. Humans had this realm. When one was none of the above, they belonged nowhere at all, which was where Bruce believed he stood.

When there was no response from the Fallen beside him, Bruce looked up to Tony's face. It seemed like the other had gone away somewhere else altogether, staring blankly across the room with a distant expression. While he had the chance and Tony's attention was elsewhere, Bruce studied the cut jaw, the handsome face, the neatly kept goatee.

When Tony jerked back into the present, indicated by the twitch of wings and body, Bruce hid his watching in a sip of tea. He caught the little gesture Tony gave at the plate between them over the rim of the cup. "You should try some," Tony said, verbally refocusing himself from the sound of it. "It's good. I used to make it all the time when I felt lonely."

How could he say no to that? Bruce picked up the fork along the edge of the plate and cut into the scrambled eggs, seeing a hint of cheese ooze from where he cut. It had been a long time since he'd bothered with mundane things such as eating. No one had been there to explain the altered body he had woken up in after his death, so step by step he had figured it out for himself - learning such things as not needing to eat or drink, healing nearly instantly from lesser wounds and within minutes from the gravest. Why his body no longer required substance to live on he had no idea and after a while, had assumed it was the unique energy that seemed to be in all beings risen through the afterlife.

"You don't know about a lot of things," Tony blurted out, interrupting Bruce's train of thought and making him look sharply up from the bite he was hesitating in eating. Tony frowned as if he realized that had been rude. He drummed his fingers on the sheets, and then stood up. "Uh, I'll be in the kitchen. Pepper got JARVIS to bring up some recipes she wants to try and I was just finishing her lunches before I brought you this. So," his thumb jutted towards the door as his wings shuddered and gave a broken flap, then he began retreating, "I'll meet you there."

Bruce didn't miss the sweep of Tony's eyes over his body and suddenly felt underdressed despite his borrowed sweat pants. His wings gave an agitated flap, resettling so they covered his torso, only returning to their normal positions when Tony was gone. Sometimes just dealing with Tony was an event in of itself. The Fallen was confusing every time they spoke and often left his head spinning; it was certainly a unique few days of his long life.

He let out a breath from the deepest parts of his lungs and shook his head before looking at the plate of eggs and bacon again. The piece of egg he had sliced off he picked up and popped into his mouth, then began to chew. How long... how long had it been since he had truly eaten? The flavor on his tongue was exquisite, simple, and strong. Bruce's eyes closed as he enjoyed it, immensely glad Tony had left as blindly his fingers grasped for a piece of bacon and added it to the taste.

As Bruce finished the piece of bacon in his hand, the feeling of the grease on his fingertips, the scent lingering behind, brought him back to a different point in time. He could recall a dark haired man hunched over some blueprints, murmuring to himself about food while one hand blindly reached for a metal plate resting on a Bunsen burner, snagging a piece of bacon on it and cursing when he managed to burn himself in the process.

 _"It's your own fault, Stark,"_ Bruce had said in amusement as he watched Howard suck on the burnt finger. _"You could have gone home and let your beautiful wife cook you a good meal."_

 _"Too much to do here, too little time."_ He saw Howard's slightly amused grin conforming around the finger stuffed into his mouth. _"What time is it anyways?"_

 _"6 am."_ He heard Howard's snort and mutter about something he couldn't quite catch. _"What has you so focused this morning, anyway? You've been so caught up in those blueprints for the last few days that I'm pretty sure you're going to be late on the shield you're supposed to be making."_

 _"It's next to the bar fridge, I finished it earlier when I got stuck."_ Howard's tone was almost amusingly dismissive. _"But this? This is going to be the thing that makes Tony proud to be my kid when he's older."_ There was a look of fondness on Howard's face, though it went away when he noticed a tiny brown-haired boy come running in with a cup of steaming coffee.

 _"Gots you a drink,"_ the kid chimed, wide eyed as a tiny hand set the mug on top of the blueprints, clearly aiming for some sort of affection. Howard stopped, setting his pencil to the side and moving the cup off of the blueprints, but laid a hand on top of the kid's head and ruffled his hair.

 _"Thanks Champ,"_ Howard said, glancing at him. _"Tell your Ma I'll be home for dinner tonight, okay? Don't be too rough with her either, she's a lady and you treat them right, you hear?"_

 _"'Kay,"_ the boy agreed and quickly scampered off as Howard turned back to his work, picked the pencil he dropped, and raised a brow.

 _"Don't look at me like that,"_ Howard scowled, shooting Bruce a look. Bruce just held up his hands with a small smile, saying nothing. Instead he had moved behind the engineer and looked over his shoulder, admiring the way the stain from the coffee mug mirrored the arch of the device outlined in blue.

At the top of the page, he could still remember the neatly printed words. “ _The Arc Reactor_.”


	5. Chapter 5

Bruce sat back on the bed, staring down at the plate Tony had cooked up for him. He reached out to take another piece of bacon and frowned when he realized he had finished his breakfast. In fact, the plate was practically licked clean. He laughed quietly as he realized just how quickly he had eaten his meal before finishing the last of his tea in a quick swig.

On quiet feet he padded down to the kitchen; after all, he had to thank Tony for the meal. Yet as he got closer to the kitchen, delicious scents drifted past him. As he came around the corner he peered into the kitchen, holding his plate, fork, and cup ahead of him.

Tony's brows were raised when he spotted Bruce. Bruce could only imagine what Tony was thinking, seeing him holding the dishes out to him like he had no idea what to do with them. Tony, having a forkful of eggs frozen centimeters away from his mouth, just grinned and shook his head. Making only the slightest of titters, Tony pointed to the table. "You liked it? Just leave the dishes here, I have a pile to do later." There was such pride in Tony's voice, something that hit Bruce in a wave.

Bruce stepped back at the reaction, tilting his head slightly at the Fallen. "It was wonderful. It's been so long since I even bothered to eat and, well," he gestured a little with his very cleared plate. He did, however, hold his tongue as he fought back the urge to ask about the look he was being given from Tony after saying that -- feeling suddenly like he was being put under strict observation for something beyond him. Hadn't Pepper enjoyed Tony's food before him, or was there a more specific reason for Tony's happiness at him having eaten?

Bruce's gaze went over to the dishes piled in and around the sink. He had a small favor to repay, thanks to Tony making him breakfast, so he took his dishes over and started to tackle the huge pile of dishes, pots, and pans. He could see a half dozen neatly laid out containers with food hidden inside - had Tony made more meals? "You must enjoy cooking, then?"

"It's something to do," Tony answered with a lift of his shoulders, though he was good about not talking with his mouth full. "Pepper can't cook, so I make her lunches and dinners -- unless we order in." There were a few scrapes of fork against the plate, before the loud clank of metal on ceramic and footsteps were heard behind him. Bruce's wings tensed, slicking down as he spotted an arm reaching around him to place the empty plate with the other dishes. "Relax," Tony murmured, withdrawing his arm and going to gather the tupperware. "So yeah, these are Pepper's lunches for the next week."

"It's nice she has someone to cook for her," Bruce said quietly as he worked quickly through the mess, setting things aside to dry. "Especially considering how much the business seems to keep her away from home." It didn't exactly escape his notice that Pepper wasn't around unless it was later at night.

"Yeah." Tony clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and bent down after opening the fridge. "She's doing a lot of good work, so I figure I could do this for her at least. Otherwise she'd be living off of take-out and about 300 pounds heavier." Tony's voice gave the impression that he was rolling his eyes as he spoke. "Not saying burgers aren't good or anything. God, I should get her to bring me one."

The tone Tony's voice took on made the corner of Bruce's lips lift. "One of the penalties for being dead, never being able to do what we need to."

He could hear Tony closing the fridge and grabbing something off of the island behind him, footfalls leading back to the table and then silence for a few moments. Suddenly, the sound of plastic-paper hitting the table filled the room. He waited for another word from Tony and wasn't disappointed when there was a soft snort and belated comment of, "You could say that again."

"Once I realized what I had become, I began to realize that what most people would consider ghosts could very well be one of us." ‘Us' being any of the three possibilities of Angel, Fallen, or Demon. He glanced over his shoulder to see what those sounds were and saw Tony setting up a game that proved to be Solitaire.

"Pepper says I'm not allowed to push papers over anymore when she has company," Tony replied with a small snort. "Nor am I allowed to play _Day-Oh_. Says it's mean and the reference can be considered obscure."

It took Bruce a moment to understand the first, but the second was completely lost on him. "Obscure enough I don't understand it." He shrugged a shoulder.

"And that's a crying shame," Tony lamented with a small laugh. "You know you don't have to clean up, right? Or do it by hand. There's a dishwasher to your left."

"Dishwasher?" Bruce had never used one, so it never occurred to him to look for one. He looked down to the left, saw the door set into the cabinets, then shrugged again. "Call me old-fashioned."

"How about I just call you old and be done with it?" Tony crooned from across the room, the slaps of the cards pausing.

Bruce just gave Tony a look over his shoulder before snorting. "You call me old, and I will call you boy." Tit for tat.

"Problem is, Old Man, I'm no boy," Tony shot back, not missing a beat, catching Bruce's eye and winking lazily before his hands picked up where they left off on the game.

"You are to me, boy." Bruce's mouth lifted again into another smile before he went for the last few dishes, finishing them off and setting them to dry. He wasn't sure why he didn't head for the door, but instead decided to linger, pulling out a chair at the table and watching Tony play. Maybe it was just because he actually had someone to talk to, a rare thing in his life.

"Dating yourself much?" Tony looked up at Bruce again, eyes playful and mouth curved into a teasing smile. "Would you like to play a game?" he finally asked, quickly scrapping his losing game of Solitaire and shaking his head almost slightly.

"I'm a fossil," Bruce said in a dry voice, while inside he laughed slightly at how true the words were. "...Play what, exactly?"

"Go Fish? Mostly because I don't think your poor old brain could handle poker with Goldfish crackers," Tony retorted with a raised brow. "You _do_ know how to play Go Fish, right?"

"I don't gamble either, but I know a bit about poker. Shock, I know." But despite his knowledge of poker, he had to admit, "I'm not sure about Go Fish, though. I've... rarely bothered with cards." A remnant of the past, he knew well.

"Go Fish is super easy," Tony stated, mouth dropping open for a few moments, clearly stunned at his lack of knowledge of what was apparently the easiest game ever. "You're definitely pushing your age back, aren't you?"

"Shut it, boy," Bruce said in his best attempt at a crotchety old man's voice. "We could play something else if you're so offended." He tried a smile as a way to show he was joking.

"Don't make me put you in a home," Tony teased with a small laugh, shaking his head as he began to shuffle the cards together. Tony began explaining the rules, his eyes on the cards for half of it, staring straight at Bruce for the other half. The rules were easy enough to understand, and soon Bruce had a spread of cards in his hands and a pair down on the table, getting the hang of it.

"Got a way to make this interesting, if you're game," Tony suggested, sounding all too much like he had something more devious planned than a simple game. "I mean, unless you're too old to be able to take that leap. I'll completely understand." There was a challenge written all over his face, eyebrow lifted high and lips pulled into a familiar smirk.

It struck Bruce like lightning just how similar Tony looked like his father, how very similar he _sounded_ to the man he had once worked with. "...You... are definitely your father's son," Bruce said softly, blinking as he saw another face for a moment sitting across from him.

Tony paused, his eyes dropping, and everything seemed to stop around him. Then it was like the world started moving again; Tony's eyes were back on his and there was still a ghost of a smile on his face. Something was off. The Fallen's eyes were more closed off than before, those expressive wings weren't so... adamant about showing how their owner was feeling anymore. "Yeah?" The voice Tony used was tighter than before, more tense. "You're not the first to have said that, you probably won't be the last either."

Clearly not the best subject to bring up. Bruce looked away, unconsciously pulling his wings in closer to his body. "My apologies. I won't bring it up again."

"How do you know him anyways?" Tony's tone was sharp, his wings finally flapping as he put down a pair of his own cards. It seemed even with his offer to drop the subject, Tony wasn't quite ready to.

"I... worked with him," Bruce said cautiously, the cards held awkwardly in his hands now as the subject had changed the atmosphere so drastically.

It was silent after that, a long span of Tony staring at his cards. Then, after what seemed to be an eternity, Tony's head ducked down and a low laugh escaped from him. "It was you, wasn't it?" Tony finally asked, placing the cards face down as he rubbed the heel of his palm into his temple in small circles. "Mom always said he had someone watching over him in the lab, that he really thought he was talking to someone." Tony's fingers drummed against the surface and eyes glanced to the side, away from Bruce. "I assumed he was crazy. That the work was getting to him."

"I tried not to let it be known I was even there, at first. Then one day instead of just... talking to himself, like I assumed he had been doing, he turned to me and bluntly said that if I was going to keep stalking him, that I should stop looking over his shoulder and come help." Bruce gave the faintest smile at the memory. "It wasn't the first time a Human had seen me, but it was the first time I ever had one outright talk to me who knew I was there. I remember being very confused and not understanding that he was actually talking to me, but... we started working together after that. I wanted to learn more about what he was doing, and he seemed happy to have someone to talk to about it all."

"Good to know he had a friend," Tony managed out, for once his own wings curled towards him, eyebrows furrowing and gaze on the table, the hand pressing harder onto his temple. "When did you move on exactly? I'm having doubts that you stuck around after the car accident."

"Is that how he died?" Bruce asked, his voice softer, a certain sadness moving through him. He had been fond of Howard Stark and owed much to him. "I remember he said he was going away, on a vacation, so I decided to do the same. When I came back... he was gone, so I moved on." He could remember it, returning to the lab and finding it empty and cold and knowing that the end of his time there had come, _knowing_ on some instinct deeper than Humans had.

"Yeah, stormy night, mountain highway, a bit too much to drink and pow, off the side of the road they go." Tony's body hunched, wings brushing against his own arms and mouth thinned into a line.

"They-- _oh_." Bruce let out a breath as he realized what Tony meant. He couldn't remember her name anymore, but he could remember the face of a beautiful woman that Howard had always seemed proud to call his wife. Tony had lost them both in a moment, which left Bruce feeling even more like he was encroaching on an area he had no right to.

"The mansion's still standing. I haven't been there since he died. I can get Pepper to take you there if you want sometime."

Bruce let out a breath and his gaze slid away from Tony. "I never followed him when he left the lab. I felt... it was none of my business."

Silence fell between them, heavy as a boulder, until Bruce licked his lips. "You mentioned something about making this," a gesture over the cards, "more interesting?" To pull them away from the topic altogether.

It took a few seconds of vapid blinking from Tony for the other to finally act like he saw Bruce and not something, or some _one_ , completely different sitting before him. "Oh, yeah, I was going to say, when one of us gets a pair we can ask the other a question?"

Bruce gave Tony a bit of a look for that. "What kind of questions?" There were things he had no desire to talk about and wouldn't answer regardless of some game's rules.

"No idea, but if either of us don't like a question, we can just ask for a new one, I guess, got a three?" Tony seemed to relax, almost melt under his stare, tension leaving him.

Well, that was fast. Bruce passed over a three and lifted an eyebrow towards the Fallen, waiting for the question.

"Do you like it here?" Tony set the cards down and waited.

"Here meaning New York, or this Tower?" Bruce asked right back.

"Tower," Tony shot him a look and waited, grinning slightly.

Bruce gave some honest thought to the question, fingers tapping on the back of his cards before nodding. It was already an interesting few days with experiences that, while not new, were ones he had not experienced in a very long time. Though Tony was sometimes a difficult person to deal with, he did find he was enjoying himself. Pepper, when he could spend some time with her, was smart, quick-witted, and kept Tony in check with a hand that continued to impress him. "Yes, I do."

It answered the question. Didn't mean he had to offer anything more.

Tony seemed to accept that, because he nodded, smiled, and asked, "Got a two?" Bruce shook his head and told Tony to Go Fish, pondering a question he could ask Tony. What did he even want to know about Tony that he could ask?

"A queen?" Bruce asked, deciding on a question after some thought. Something he had been wondering about since he first came.

"Yeah." Tony handed it over without hesitation. "Your question, Old Man."

"Are you and Pepper..." What was the term anymore? Bruce scowled slightly as he worked through the possibilities. He ignored the look he was getting from Tony, practically hearing Tony's voice saying, _Are Pepper and I... what_? "Together. A couple." Those were timeless enough.

Cards were set down and Tony began drumming his fingers on the table, sending out a clear vibe of I want to pass even though he opened his mouth and started to speak. "We both want to be, I think," Tony answered, "but I think we both know that it's a fucking bad idea." Pain slowly broke through the mask and he held his hand up before Bruce could interrupt him. "She's going to heaven; I won't let her do anything less. Like, there was this story I heard. About this Angel with red hair and lips. Beautiful, perfect, even before she became an Angel I'm told, but... she fell in love with the Human she was guarding. Then, because of her, he ended up being accused during the witch trials." Tony used his hands to exaggerate the other's supposed coming death. "Even though she was an Angel, he could hear her, feel her presence, and that was enough for them both. They were in love. Like, I mean. They were completely 100% in love with each other, nothing could stop them -- until the town decides he's guilty. So the beautiful Angel decided to spare the guy being roasted alive. Poetic, right? The Big Guy upstairs didn't think so, so she was cast to Earth as a Fallen -- just because she spared him the torture of dying by fire or hanging by having him die in his sleep." A pause, Tony's hands stilling and eyes finally lifting to Bruce's. "The guy who was killed was made an Angel, of course, but all memory of who he was, and of the one person who loved him enough to save him from dying in one of the worst ways possible? Gone. Washed away, fresh sheet of snow. Now he's some bad-ass Cupid with a bow and would kill her on sight for being a Fallen. That's why we want to be together, but really can't, Bruce, because when she dies I'm going to still be here and she's going to have forgotten me."

Bruce had no idea what to say to that story. It was heart-breaking and something he had never really thought about, but it explained why these two flirted on the edges of being a couple. "...I'm sorry," he said softly.

"Don't be," Tony replied, stretching his neck to the side. "It's the pecking order. Angels have their place, Demons have theirs, and Humans have one too. Fallen don't fit in anywhere. We're not wanted and no matter what we do to prove ourselves, we're pretty much damned if we do and damned if we don't." His thumb and index finger pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed. His wings fluttered hard once and resettled, showing more signs of being stressed than before. "It's okay. We're happy how we are. We probably want more but we have to make do with what we have. It's a thing and I've come to be okay with never having what I want."

Tony paused again, eyes lifting again and he _smiled_ at Bruce like he hadn't approached a difficult topic. "You can ask for another card. After all, you just got a pair."

Bruce wanted to not-so-politely tell Tony that it was clearly rubbish that either of them were happy with it. Instead, he said quietly, "I would rather the sixty, seventy years of her love and loving her than avoiding it all to attempt to spare pain later." It was rude, and pushing in an area that was none of his business, but he meant it. Tony, he hoped, would know love. "Tens?"

"It took me 63 years," Tony began, eyes dropping to his cards, "but I finally figured out what they meant by ‘there's more than one way to love someone'. Yeah, here," Tony offered the card out to him with a stiff smile. Bruce took the card, turning back dates in his mind. Tony had said he was thirty-nine when he died, so he had been dead for only twenty-four years.

Suddenly, Bruce felt like the fossil he had said he was, which, in turn, led to his next question. "How long do you think I've existed?"

"Long enough to have been around the block a few hundred times," Tony replied like it was nothing big. "Maybe a few thousand times. Not really sure. If I had to put a date to you, I'd feel safe in saying older than 500."

The corner of Bruce's mouth lifted, but he said nothing to Tony's guess. Instead he asked, "Sixes? Or am I on a spectacular roll?"

"Go fish," Tony replied, checking over his cards and humming quietly to himself. "Got a king?"

"Go fish." Bruce added the seven into his hand, looking thoughtfully at Tony. Maybe love hurt him enough to not want to bother the attempt with Pepper, which to Bruce seemed even more heart-breaking than the story Tony had told. At least in the story, they had been happy for a while.

"Got it," Tony placed the pair of kings with his pile and gave a quick roll of his shoulders and stretch of his neck before smiling slightly up at the other across from him. "Do your wings hurt?"

The question took Bruce by surprise, lifting a brow in Tony's direction. "...I'm not sure what you mean by hurt." He flared out a wing, looking at the tattered ends of it. "They're sore, often enough, but they don't … hurt."

"Sore works." Tony nodded and tilted his head down towards the cards. "Got a three?"

"Go fish. Sevens?" Trying to match up the one he had picked up. "Why do you want to know if my wings hurt?" It was quite an odd question to be asked, in Bruce's opinion, odd enough to ask a question out of turn.

"You're lucky I just picked one up," Tony returned, offering the seven from between his index and middle finger. "I was just wondering. My wings get pretty sore if I'm extremely tense, and you're like a rock. I'm also trying to figure out if there's a way I could fix that without touching you or something."

A brow lifted. Bruce thought about it, not asking for another card yet as he turned the question hidden in Tony's words over. "It has been a long time since I could relax in a hot spring." He could remember doing so in his travels, hiding in the hot springs when no mortals were about and he could rest, soaking his wings, without worry of being bothered or seen.

"That sounds nice," the Fallen admitted with a lift of his brow. "Really nice, actually. I'll show you the hot tub later."

"Do we figure out a winner when all of the cards have been matched up?" Bruce asked, not one of their odd questions back and forth but more curious how long the game play would continue.

"Yeah, pretty much." Tony blinked, finally taking stock of the diminishing pile before them. "You can ask for another card," he added right after, raising a brow up at him. Bruce shrugged and asked for an eight, but was forced to Go Fish. It was a couple of turns before Tony made the next pair.

"Aren't you curious about what I use to defend myself?" Tony asked, looking up at Bruce from below thick lashes, a slight smile on his face. "Would you _like_ to see what I use to defend myself?"

"I think that was two questions," Bruce pointed out. "To answer the first, I honestly don't care. I never had a weapon-- a physical weapon, I should say. I've seen a lot of Angelic and Demonic weapons over the years though; impress me." He leaned forward on an elbow and lifted a brow right back at Tony.

"Oh, _rude_. Gimme like two seconds." The Fallen all but jumped out of his chair and scampered down the hallway that led to one of the few locked rooms on the floor Pepper and Bruce had been sharing. There were loud bangs and crashes echoing down the empty hallway that left Bruce jumping and wide-eyed when Tony came barreling back down, socks sliding against the wooden floor as he seemed to skid to a stop in front of him, offering out two red-and-gold metal gauntlets. "You may ogle them now."

With his heart racing in his chest, Bruce stared at Tony, boggling instead of ogling. "How many things did you break on the way?" he asked after a swallow. His gaze finally dropped down to the gauntlets Tony was holding out, and just grew even more confused. "...Armor?"

"Nothing I can't replace and/or fix," Tony replied with a lift of his shoulders and then raised a brow. "One is more protection than the other, yes. Before I died, I was working on repulsor technology," he began explaining, "so after I died, I decided to put it to a more personal use. A weapon that's made to cleanly take out the heart of a Demon -- or Angel... without the nastiness of cutting them out."

"A repulsor weapon?" Well now, Tony had managed to do exactly what he had asked and impressed him. "If one is a weapon, then what is the other?" Bruce put out a hand with a questioning expression, hoping Tony would let him see the gauntlets.

Tony held them out for Bruce, grinning wildly, eyes bright and wings flapping with the sheer pleasure that seemed to roll over him. "Shield. Well, energy shield. Say a knife comes down on you, block with the shield and your free hand is still able to aim still."

Bruce took the gauntlets, putting one down so he could study its twin. The crimson and gold outside was the most exquisite armor, beautifully done. The fingers bent as easily as flesh and blood, yet it all sat over a bulbous clear spot almost like a light socket. "They're beautiful," Bruce had to admit quietly. "Unique, too. I've never seen any Angel or Demon using any kind of technology for a weapon."

The shudder that roved down Tony's back and through his wings wasn't lost on Bruce, nor was the light in those brown eyes. Tony was more than pleased with the praise. "Yeah, me either," Tony finally stated, all but glowing with pride. "Wanna try them?"

Immediately Bruce nodded, even before he truly thought about it. He had to laugh quietly at his own reaction, just a tiny chuckle. "Yes, I would love to. I've never seen anything like this in all my years." Armor he had seen before, Humans, Demons, and Angels alike, but nothing like _this_.

"We're going to need to go down to the second lab then," Tony urged, standing up and taking a few steps back. "You wanna carry them? Or should I take them back?"

"I've got them," Bruce said with a small smile, tucking one under his arm and shifting the other so he could study it as they went. The way the plating sat was incredibly done, and by the time they got down to the labs, Bruce was more than eager to try one of them out. He knew in a vague way that weapons became very personal things to the being that carried them, some so intricate to their being that they could summon the weapon from anywhere. Tony, with how short of a span he had been dead, most likely hadn't reached that point yet. It only seemed to be the older Beings that had that ability.

"Okay, so, I'm going to actually need to touch you to help you get one of these on," Tony stated as he gestured to the gauntlets. "So, please, if you don't mind, don't shove your wing in my mouth again. It'll just be super quick anyways; JARVIS can make the changes to have it fit like a glove as soon as I finish."

Bruce snorted at the seemingly unintended pun but his curiosity overrode the immediate desire to curl his wings around himself. He offered out his arm to Tony in silent agreement, but gave a faint warning look.

Hands went to work, and Tony delivered what he promised. He was extremely fast with putting the gauntlets on Bruce, though rough fingers dragged against skin more than a few times. "There you go. JARVIS, can you get these to fit him?"

" _Of course, sir. Bruce, this may pinch very briefly_ ," the voice responded, the weapons squeezing and loosening until they did fit perfectly. It was a very disconcerting feeling, one that left Bruce staring at the arm he had offered like it was suddenly alien. Yet when he flexed his arm, the gauntlet felt like it belonged where it was, moving like a second skin.

"Incredible," Bruce whispered as he made a fist, which thanks to the curved metal felt like he was holding something, but the joints moved deftly enough he was sure he could have easily picked up most objects. "Absolutely incredible."

The smile stretched wider across Tony's face, the beam like a ray of sunlight breaking through a cloudy sky. "Wanna fire it?" Bruce heard Tony ask, and blinked as Tony began to crowd into his personal space and simply by reaction ended up with a wing in his mouth. "I thought we weren't going to do that," Tony said, sputtering against the black feathers that were invading his mouth.

"I didn't expect you to suddenly be an inch from me, either," Bruce said with a hint of guilt. He pulled his wings back to himself, frowning as he reached over and pulled a feather from Tony's neckline. "And now I've shed on you." Bruce was all too used to losing feathers and thus was unconcerned. They grew back... or would, if his Otherside would stop appearing without warning and disappearing leaving him in awkward, sometimes dangerous positions that unfortunately left him nude, sometimes in pain, and often with bent feathers.

"This is getting pretty frustrating, you know --" Tony finally ground out. "You keep reacting like I'm going to hurt you every time I try to touch you." Tony's brows tightened, the warming, happy look in his eyes gone, replaced with a frown. "I'm not going to hurt you. What do I have to do to get you to realize that?"

"No one else tries to touch me," Bruce countered, hearing the heavy frustration in Tony's voice. "Just you. Why do you even feel the need to touch me?" It made no sense to him and was, in turn, starting to get frustrating for him as well.

"No one else tries because no one else can see us," Tony shot back, before inching his hand back to his side. "Because that's how I am," he finally added, eyes turning away to stare at the wall to their side. "I like to touch people I like."

"We've known each other for a total of about a week. How can you know you like me?" Bruce's wings fluttered slightly before resettling against his back. "We know almost nothing about one another."

"I know more about you than you think," Tony shot back, puffing up his chest. "Your favourite tea is that green tea with pomegranate - Pepper agrees with you on it being one of the best, by the way. Your wings are probably tattered due to your rapid changes with the Other Guy and I saw how he dumped you when you changed back and you don't trust me even though you're standing there in front of me wearing _my_ weapons. You love Pepper's library and your mind is like none other I've ever seen. I've never met someone who can keep up with me like you can. You shield yourself from things you're not sure of and you're acting like any day now I'm going to be perched over you with one of my gauntlets aiming to take out your heart. But here's the big thing, Bruce-" Tony paused to think. "I want to get to know you better. Because right now? I like what I see, what I'm standing next to. I am reaching that proverbial olive branch out to you but you keep dodging away from it and keeping your distance for some reason that's beyond me. I don't want to be alone anymore and I'm pretty sure you don't either."

Bruce went silent in the face of Tony's speech, watching the Fallen as he thought it over. To not be alone anymore... did Tony even realize the power in those words? What it truly meant? Tony had Pepper if no one else, how could he really understand what it was to be truly, utterly _alone_? He fought down those thoughts though at his own words - _we know almost nothing about one another_. Maybe Tony did know loneliness, but not on the same scale.

"Fallen, Angels, and Demons alike have tried to kill me over the years. The Demons fear _him_ if they have a brain, and the Angels want to try to destroy him. Humans can't see me - well, very few can see me - and Fallen seem to want nothing to do with anyone but themselves. I've grown used to being alone and I pray you never do." Bruce's tone remained neutral, keeping _him_ calm instead of getting worked up. "I am enjoying being here though." A tiny hint of an olive branch of his own, but only just barely.

"Try being ridiculed in a crowd of your so-called peers for having a different sort of idea on a weapon," Tony said as he gesture towards the armor on Bruce's arm. "Try being tempted into falling by the Angel who claimed to be your friend and then having your heart almost destroyed because you didn't take your punishment like a man." Tony's fingers flexed, spasming out then back into a fist. "I know loneliness, Bruce. I lived in a world where people knew my name and people called themselves my friends but when it really counted, they weren't there and I couldn't remember their names to even call for them." Tony thumped the heel of his palm against his forehead, startling Bruce with the loud slap of skin against skin. "I grew up alone and I died alone; for all the people mourning my death twenty-four years ago, not one of them were mourning for the guy who died, only for the image he left behind." He wound himself down and stroked his fingertips through his own hair, eyebrows furrowed and mouth into a thin line. "I like you being here. Pepper likes you being here, too; I think she's getting a crush."

So another Angel was the reason that Tony had Fallen. What, though, could have tempted Tony into Falling? Not that Tony seemed much like an Angel, but the temptation would have had to be something big.

Bruce made a small mental note to look further into anything he could find about Tony Stark's death beyond what he could remember from the past. He could remember spending time with Howard, quiet, long days and nights in the lab, and to have his son be in such a similar state of being quite alone and surrounded by his science was both sad and brought on a layer of guilt. Maybe Bruce should have stayed.

He looked to Tony, who was staring at the ground with a hard expression, clearly trying to come up with more to say. Tempted. Fallen. Bruce caught a flicker of blue light, and a realization came to him. "...Angels did that," he said softly. When Tony looked up, his expression changing to one of confusion, Bruce explained his statement by gesturing towards Tony's chest. "That. They tried to destroy your heart so you'd die your final Death, but... somehow, you survived." Bruce snorted, eyes growing dark. "Angels are supposed to be better creatures than Demons, but sometimes I have a hard time seeing it."

"Yeah," Tony nodded and gestured to his wing as well. "That too." He definitely didn't seem proud of that either. "The Angel fell at the same time -- gladly, might I add. Last time I saw him was when you and I first met, but I haven't actually heard anything of him since. I've been hunting since the day I Fell." Bruce saw the darkness cross Tony's eyes, his expression becoming completely _blank_ in a way that was almost disturbing. This, Bruce knew instantly, was a look of utter hatred. There was more to the story, and already Bruce was putting two and two together.

The Angel had been the reason Tony Fell. He was absolutely sure of that much. Yet as Tony stood there, wings, body, and face tight, Bruce wanted to turn away from the topic and bring back the light he was used to seeing in Tony's eyes.

"I'm not going anywhere for now," he said quietly, trying to ease Tony's agitation. "I can't and won't apologize for habits of many, many years not changing instantly, but you're one of the very few people I've ever willingly stayed with who knew I existed." While he had no recollection of the fight that brought his Otherside and Tony together, he knew a _part_ of him did. The Fallen that had brought Tony down from Heaven would pay, one way or another, now that both he and his Otherside knew the connection.

"I am getting that," Tony mumbled and frowned at Bruce. "I'd just like you to stop flinching or hiding when I go to pat you on the shoulder. It was kinda cute the first two hundred times, now it makes me nervous like I'm walking on eggshells." Slowly, so very slowly Tony began reaching out him, pausing for a moment and then pulling his hand back. "Can I just touch your wings? I've been curious about them. I've never actually seen wings as black as yours -- which is not supposed to sound as rude as it's coming off. Just that the other Fallen I've met all have shades of color or grey, not _black_."

Bruce watched Tony for a long minute, then finally sighed. Tony, somehow, kept talking him into things he didn't normally do - like stay here, eat, apply physics in ways he normally wouldn't, and now this. While he didn't exactly _like_ the idea of his wings being touched, he still cautiously flexed one out and offered it to Tony, tattered feathers and all.

He was surprised by the gentleness that Tony spent upon the wing, touching lightly, skimming calloused fingers over the feathers and dipping into the grooves that were scars. "In return, you can, you know, touch mine. Fair is fair." Bruce barely heard what Tony was saying because his head was bent forward, eyes mostly closed, feathers twitching slightly beneath Tony's fingertips. His wings were intensely sensitive, in particular the scar tissue, and altogether it was creating a pleasurable feeling that rippled from the edges of his wings to his spine. Carefully, Tony's fingers stroked along his wings in an faux massage that seemed to force him, and his wings, to relax under each and every stroke and knead of his fingers until the feathers poofed up. Instead of an attempted sentence to tell Tony he could stop now, all that came out of him was a very quiet _hnnnn_ sound.

Very intelligent, that sound. Should never have let Tony touch-- oh, that scratching felt nice as well.

Neither noticed Pepper right away as Bruce's head had taken refuge somewhere far away while extremely nimble fingers scritched and rubbed the stress out of his wings, not until there was a soft, "Tony are you _preening him_?" Bruce jumped, blushing red at the fact that Pepper had _caught them_. Pulling the wing from Tony's hands, he put some space between them as he caught sight of his own wings, one being poofy, the feathers fluffed up, while the other was very slicked down.

"I wasn't done," Tony softly complained, turning to watch Pepper with a quirk of his brows. "You're kinda rude, interrupting man-time."

""You were _grooming_ him," Pepper said with a slight laugh. "Like two birds sitting beside each other in a tree."

"I'm not a bird!" Bruce added, cheeks tinging darker, whereas Tony just kept his brow high, offense written all over his face.

"No I wasn't!" Tony squawked loudly after a few moments. "His wings are really tense." He turned towards Bruce to explain a bit. "You need to make sure they're getting enough attention or they will ache. Or at least mine do if I get overly tense. Pepper, don't look at me like that!" Tony suddenly whined, not even needing to look back at Pepper to know that she was giving him such a look.

"I didn't expect to come home and find you primping him like a bird, Tony," Pepper replied, hiding a smile behind a hand. "Does Tony want a cracker?"

"A cracker would be lovely actually, I'm starvi-- You, Ms. Potts are the devil. I'm going to get you for this." Tony huffed out, his eyes narrowing on the redhead trying not to laugh.

"You going to sing for me next?"

"Thin ice, Pepper, thin ice."

"You would make a lovely songbird. Maybe I should get JARVIS to play you singing in the shower for everyone some time."

"You are the rudest lady that ever ruded."

"Ruded isn't a word, Tony."

"Maybe I should go-" Bruce started, the gauntlet still on his arm completely forgotten as he started to edge towards the door. Tony's words came back to him from earlier. _That's why we want to be together, but really can't._ They still acted like a couple of many years, more than friends. It always felt a bit like being in the middle when they got into these ‘arguments'.

"I don't care if it's not a--What? No!" Tony flailed, looking towards Bruce and frowning. "Pepper, you're scaring him off."

"Stop complaining, Tony, I did nothing of the sort." Pepper snorted, rolling her eyes and reaching into the bag she had at her side. "I brought you a new book, Bruce, I think it'd do us some good to read the same book at the same time, huh? We could discuss it afterwards."

"Pepper, your crush is showing." Tony snorted, reaching up to ruffle her hair and then getting smacked for it.

"Tony, it's not a crush. You just don't like reading the same things as me!" she snapped and shoved him lightly. "Despite what you may think, I like having someone around who'll discuss this with me, Mr. I'll-Read-A-Textbook-On-Quantum-Physics-But- _Find-The-Count-Of-Monte-Cristo_ -The-Most-Boring-Ever."

"You find _The Count of Monte Cristo boring_?!" Bruce interrupted with wide eyes. "It's one of the greatest stories ever written!"

"In the textbook's defense, it's still more fun to read than your goddamned revenge stories!" Tony scowled and shoved her lightly, making her wobble, though he was sure not to let her fall down. "I'm living one, remember, don't need to read about one if I'm living one."

"I'm sorry, we can't all be Byronic Heroes, Mr. Stark," Pepper murmured, shaking her head and watching Tony open and close his mouth in an attempted to conjure some sort of response to that.

"I am not a Byronic Hero!" Tony shrieked after a few more moments of gaping like a fish.

"Actually, Tony, she has a very good point. You're nearly a perfect example of a Byronic Hero. Proud, moody, cynical... misery and revenge in your heart but capable of deep love and affection. In a dictionary, they could put ‘See Tony Stark' beside the definition." Bruce chuckled softly.

"You've corrupted him!" Tony accused Pepper, pointing wildly at Bruce with both hands and a horrified look on his face. "Look at what you did to him, Pepper! You've instilled his soul with this weird-- oh my god, I am not a Byronic Hero!"

"He fits the bill as Mr. Darcy, doesn't he, Bruce?" Pepper questioned, tapping her chin and glancing towards Bruce with a large grin on her face. Blue eyes danced with playfulness and joy as she found Bruce a willing accomplice in teasing.

"Tony does tend to smile more, though," Bruce pointed out. "Very bipolar." Oh yes, she had her willing accomplice in return for Tony managing to get him caught being preened.

"I-- You--" Tony stammered and for once, the Fallen's cheeks burned red. With his eyes wide, he looked almost like a deer caught in the headlights. Wings flapped in his growing state of confusion and embarrassment, before his gaze began darting around and settled on the gauntlets. "Do you want to fire those or not?" he squeaked out, eyes pleading to Bruce as he looked for a way out of the conversation.

"Oh, that's a new expression," Pepper mocked, laughing quietly to herself before nodding. "You boys have fun, I'll just wait here. I brought home some Thai-- No, don't give me that look Tony, I don't care, you're going to eat it." Tony still managed to pout through his panicked mood. "What are you? Five?"

"Not on his favorite list?" Bruce asked Pepper.

"Hates Thai food with a passion."

Bruce chuckled quietly before nodding at Tony. "Show me what to do with these." He flexed his fingers, refocusing on just what the gauntlets were proposed to do.

Pepper fell quiet at that, a smile on her lips, watching Tony carefully slide up besides Bruce and squint down at him, sparing only one more look towards the woman with his tongue stuck out at her -- which Pepper reciprocated wholeheartedly.

"I'm going to have to touch you," Tony stated, shaking his head before he moved to help brace Bruce. "Okay, there's like, this little push thingy on the palm. Put your hand around the wrist first time, okay? Curl your knuckles in to touch the bulb and it'll go off. Just aim, I'm just here to-- Bruce, get your wing out of my goddamned mouth."

"They just _sit there_ , I can't help that," Bruce hissed, his hand holding his wrist as he braced himself and wondered just how much kick this would really have. His brow furrowed as he felt for _the little pushy thing, very descriptive Tony- Ah_!

His eyes went wide as he felt it gather and blast just after hitting the trigger inside the gauntlet, arm jerking with the kick - both better than he feared and worse than he hoped. The feeling of it though, the power in that single strike, was very impressive! "I could get used to that," Bruce said after a moment of silence, smiling slightly.

"You need to smile like that more often," Tony and Pepper told Bruce at the same time, eyes wide and grins matching in taking their pleasure at Bruce's own. Tony's body was rearranged to settle closer to Bruce's side as he began bracing Bruce's body for another shot, stiffening his own arm to help with the recoil."Once more, promise," Tony suddenly said. "What you did was a really weak one. I'm gonna show you about 75% power in this next one. I wish I was joking, but you're going to, you know, need me in your personal bubble to help you with it. This much power was enough to send me shooting back against a wall when I wasn't ready for it. JARVIS, bump up the power."

Bruce felt as power hummed in the metal and electronics around his palm, picking up in preparation for the strike. Suddenly the amount of muscle Tony had built onto his frame made even more sense, if he had to go about not only dealing with Demons but this amount of power in his own weaponry! Bruce turned his gaze back down the length of the lab - shooting range, it seemed - and set the trigger again.

The strike was significantly more powerful, more than he would have even come close to guessing if Tony hadn't warned and helped brace him. As it was, he staggered a touch, looking down at his hand, before outright smiling. He wasn't sure why, but this... this was _fun_!

Bruce saw Tony's jaw drop open, his head flick up so that his eyes met Pepper's own and he muttered, "He's fucking adorable." He seemed frozen in place, his hands still on Bruce to brace him, and Pepper just laughed lightly, voice tinkling at the distinctive awe that had struck Tony.

Bruce tried to tug away at that, frowning. "I am not adorable unless you are also a bird." A-ha. Turnabout could be fair play. He wanted to give a try on his own now that he had felt the kick of the repulsor.

It took more than a few moments for Tony's mind to register that Bruce wanted to be away, but once it caught up with him he released him and mouthed something at Pepper to which she shook her head and patted the metal table besides her. "I'm not a bird, by the way, but you're definitely adorable," Tony managed to say.

"Bird." Bruce was personally amused now. He braced his legs and arm to try another shot. He could hear Tony and Pepper murmuring behind him, undoubtedly about him, but the gauntlets held his interest. Tap the trigger, feel the energy build, _bam_! He stepped back from the kick but didn't fall, and he had to smile again. There was something childishly fun about being able to shoot the repulsor weapon, even though in the back of his mind he could remember when he despised guns.

Their talking didn't cease, nor did their gaze on Bruce. Both were still smiling wide, their eyes belying the fact they were enjoying the sight of Bruce finally opening up. Tony leaned in towards Pepper's ear, quietly whispering things, though never taking his gaze off of Bruce. Pepper laughed loud and unhindered and grasped at Tony's knee. "No, Tony," she stated finally, squeezing his knee lightly.

"But, he's cute and adorable and would love it," Tony retorted, voice getting louder and taking his eyes off of Bruce for only a few seconds. Bruce watched the play between the two from the corner of his eye. "Seriously. I bet he'd think it was a good idea."

"Yes, but I don't. You two would shoot each other and ruin your labs," Pepper replied, knocking her shoulder against his.

"That is completely beside the point." Tony snorted and smiled, crow's feet wrinkling the corners of his eyes. "He'd like it. I like seeing him smile and have fun."

"You'd never get anything done."

"You're saying this like I ever get anything done on your terms."

"True, but this would be more dangerous."

"Pep, have you met _me_?"

"Yes, sadly, and I know that you're going to keep asking even if my answer is no."

"Admit it," Tony started, leaning closer to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, "you want to see him happy, too."

"I do, but I'm more fearing what'd happen to the Tower if you both got mad at each other."

"Nothing, we're adults, duh."

"Bruce is an adult; you're a man-child."

"You know, I'm standing right here." Bruce looked fully back at them, frowning, all amusement gone. "Getting spoken about like I'm not here is rude."

"Oh I'm sorry," Tony replied, grinning toothily at him, eyebrows waggling. "I thought you were having fun with my toys."

"Sorry, Bruce," Pepper added with a shake of her head, ducking her face into Tony's shoulder.

"I am having fun with them," Bruce said, shaking his head as the brief dark feeling was banished by the light of Tony's grin. "This would work better than a sword or knives, especially when flying... no need to get in close. Tough when the enemy _does_ get in close though."

Tony squeezed Pepper's shoulder once. "Want a set for yourself?" He didn't stutter, but Pepper elbowed him and there was a loud ‘oof' at the impact to his ribs. "The Other Guy isn't a reliable form of defense and it kinda worries me to know that if you leave here," Tony stated firmly, eyes focused on Bruce's face, " _if_ you leave here, you'll be relying on rapid changes. At least with a pair of your own gauntlets you'd have a chance at defending yourself and getting out of a situation where you could be forced to make a change, if that makes sense?"

Shock went cold through Bruce as he stared at Tony for the surprising and generous offer. His immediate impulse was to say yes, but he just shook his head as logic reigned. "One change wearing these and they would be destroyed - it happens instantly, or nearly so."

"See, you're doubting my genius and that makes me sad," Tony shot back, brows furrowing together. "It's not hard to alter a set to, you know, come off automatically if your blood pressure gets too high or your heart rate too fast, whatever we decide is the best indicator that you're going to change. You need a secondary mode of defense and honestly, I don't mind allowing someone who can appreciate using these to have a set."

"You might want to include a locator beacon while you're at it," Bruce said somewhat in jest, because if the gauntlets just came off and dropped, he'd never be able to find them again. He had woken up hundreds of miles away from the last memory of a place he had in the past. Still, he hesitated, looking down at his metal-and-circuitry-encased arm. "Could... you really make another pair?"

"I could add a locator," Tony said with certainty, sparing a ‘I told you so' look towards Pepper, who simply rolled her eyes at the Fallen, "and I believe that was the whole purpose of me asking if you wanted a set - me making a new pair for you."

"If you two start shooting at each other, I'm taking both of them away from you," the redhead growled, glaring at Tony with a shake of her head.

"But _Moooooooom_ ," Tony whined mockingly. "I never get to share my cool toys."

"Anthony Edward Stark, I swear to god I will put you over my knee and--"

"Wow." Tony winced. "You totally ruined it. Never say that again."

"Is that your full name?" Bruce said thoughtfully, hiding a smiling behind his hand. "Very Byronic." Now he was just teasing outright.

"Stop corrupting my new friends, Pepper." Tony snapped his teeth at the woman and then pointed at Bruce. "You say that again and no gauntlets for you."

"Alright, alright." Bruce held up his hands in mock defeat. "Also, you started it by calling her Mom."

"You two started this by calling me a Byronic Hero." Tony snorted, throwing a wadded up piece of paper at Bruce's head. "On the original topic, do you wanna help me make your gauntlets? They'll be tailored to your needs and stuff, I mean, but having you work with me on them might make it go a lot smoother."

"I'd love to," Bruce said softly but with excitement. Engineering was not his normal interest, but Tony was changing that already by introducing things such as these gauntlets.

"Great." Tony almost vibrated with the sudden happiness that overtook him, whereas Pepper patted Tony's cheek.

"Since Tony's managed to get one, how would you feel if I asked for a hug, Bruce?" Pepper asked, smiling up at him. "Just one. I'm not like Mr. Touchy-feely over here."

Why were the pair of them such touchy people? Bruce's wings curled up against him, but he sighed to himself. He supposed it wasn't exactly the end of the world to let her, so he nodded slightly and awkwardly offered an open arm and wing to her.

She moved in slowly, tucking herself in close and wrapping her arms around his waist. "Thank you, Bruce," she muttered against his temple, giving only a brief squeeze before slowly moving away. Tony's brow was high on his forehead, mouth upturned in the corners in a slight show of mirth.

"JARVIS, are you getting this?" Tony asked, tilting his head back to direct that at the ceiling.

 _"I will be deleting it right after, sir. Ms. Potts has made it clear that this sort of thing is not allowed,"_ JARVIS stated with an passively amused tone.

"Stop corrupting everything, Potts. It's rude."

"I didn't corrupt anything, Tony," Pepper retorted.

"Thank you," Bruce said quietly to Pepper, smiling softly. That had been... pleasant, in a way. She felt warm against him, something he couldn't remember the feeling of anymore. Too long, much too long.

"Any time, Bruce," she replied, a fond look on her face as she dipped her head forward and lightly patted his hand. She jerked her hand back and looked to him. "I'm sorry, habit." She retracted herself further away from him, glancing back at Tony who seemed to brim with something unspoken, though chose to keep his mouth shut. "You boys done? I think food, then a movie is called for."

Bruce gave a tiny smile as he looked to her. When he was around them, he had to make a conscious effort to remember to eat. "It's been a long time since I've sat down for one. What sort of movie?"

"He hasn't seen _Beetlejuice_ ," Tony interrupted. "I mentioned the Day-Oh ban and he called it obscure."

"No, you said she called it obscure, I just happened to agree with her as I've never seen it," Bruce countered.

"Tony, really? I think _you're_ corrupting _him_ ," Pepper tutted and nodded her head. "Does that sound fine? It's a fun movie, just a bit on the scares-small-children side."

"No one's corrupting _me_." They both seemed convinced the other was corrupting him and he thought it was just plain ridiculous, but it seemed to be a ‘thing' between them. "It sounds fine." He wouldn't admit he didn't particularly care.

"Good," Pepper clapped her hands together while Tony snapped his teeth at her. "Come on, food first."

"I don't want Thai," Tony snipped, rolling his eyes at Pepper and reaching over to scoop her up. "It's gross."

"Well, maybe if you're nice, I'll let you have the Chinese I bought, too." Pepper scowled, shoving her palm into his face and then giggled when Tony started chewing on her fingers with a growl.

"I'm always nice," he huffed and glanced back at Bruce, then gestured with his head. "Just start sliding those off like gloves. It's easiest."

Bruce curled his fingers around the top of the gauntlet and pushed down, understanding as he felt the metal start to release. When it was off, he flexed his hand, then offered the gauntlet back. "Absolutely incredible. Are these going to be produced into something for the Humans at some point, or are you focused on something else right now?"

"Just put it on the table behind you." Tony nodded and then paused. "Don't think handing things like those to the public is ever going to be viable -- you saw how strong they are; there would be killings left and right -- but after I work on getting sensitivity into the metal part of my wing, I'm going to look into touch-friendly prosthetics based off of the core design of them."

Bruce glanced at the metallic part of Tony's wing as they both followed Pepper back up from the labs, thinking it over. The nerves would have cut off right where the damage had been done - did Tony have phantom limb experiences with his wing, or perhaps not since the wing seemed to respond so easily to him? "But then, if you can't feel anything, how are you getting it to respond so smoothly? It seems to react exactly the same as--" A pause, understanding. "Does it just mirror the other wing somehow or is there a cable system built into it?"

"I don't feel anything in the metal part, but I hooked it up to work like muscles. When the muscles of my wings pull, so does the metal. It's really hard to explain," Tony replied with a frown. "It's a problem, because since I can't feel that part of the wing, I can't feel if they malfunction after a really tough fight. The good part is that since I still have most of my heart intact, the muscles regenerate when the metal part of the wing gets yanked out."

A little wince from Bruce, frowning at Tony. "How often does that happen?" His wings twitched in sympathy. Just because the muscle would regenerate didn't it wasn't painful. As long as the heart remained intact, the damage Bruce had seen others recover from was incredible.

"Generally? Once or twice every few months," Tony responded, tilting his head. "I tend to also have to take them out myself to upgrade, to fix, etc. It's hard to do it while the metal is in the wings." He shrugged. "Having them be a bit more receptive to, you know, pain, would help a lot. It's strange, I know, but generally falling out of the sky because you didn't notice that your wing was damaged and is now malfunctioning? Not the best way to come off a battle."

Which was curious as Bruce noticed wing size and damage, or at least to a point, didn't affect flight, and yet... there was a significant amount of wing that had been ripped off and now was metallic. Perhaps it was enough to affect Tony's ability to fly. Which led to another question. "Why didn't the wing regenerate? Was it something the Angels did?" The ones that had nearly cut out Tony's heart.

"Holy relic," Tony replied with a small frown, glancing up at his wing. "That's really all I know about what they did to it. It's the same reason why my heart didn't regenerate and because of that, well, I heal a lot slower than most Angels or Fallens I meet."

Bruce's eyes closed tightly at the painful memory of the past, fingers flexing. "I see." He dropped the subject altogether, wanting to just lose himself in some ridiculous movie and not think about the many, many years ago.

Pepper led them to the kitchen, where there was food set out for them and a separate bag set off to the side with a giant T written on it. "Tony, your food's in the bag. I got you everything you usually want."

"Thank fuck," Tony said, smacking his lips against Pepper's cheek with a wet pop, before grabbing the bag and a fork and spoon. "Load up your plates -- I'm going to go set up the movie." Tony gave a few nods and began heading towards the elevator.

"We're going to be going upstairs, to Tony's penthouse," Pepper informed Bruce. "It's where he keeps the _big_ television."

"Because the one down here isn't large enough?" Bruce thought about it before shrugging. He eyed the containers of food before he went to get Pepper a plate. "I'm not sure I'm quite ready to eat something like this yet," he said softly. "I don't know what Tony's mentioned to you but... we don't need to eat. I haven't in many years until this morning."

"He didn't mention that at all, but I caught on pretty quick when he went for a week without eating anything..." She took a moment to chuckle. "Why don't we just start you off small then? There's some leftover turkey in the fridge. I can make you a sandwich?"

"...you said this is Thai food?" Bruce asked, poking one of the containers before opening it and sniffing. It called on days of the past, in all of his travels.

"Yes, I did." Pepper nodded and reached up to grab a second, much smaller plate for Bruce. "You can just take a tiny bit if you want?"

"...Thank you." He took the plate and, using a spoon and fork, took a tiny bit from every container since none of it was familiar.

"Help me put this stuff away once I get my plate made up?" she asked softly, eyes sparkling in the light as she began taking items from her favoured containers. Bruce nodded and helped her clean up before they went to the elevator. He looked at her as they went up, wishing he dared ask what she wanted from Tony, but quietly assumed it was something they both had agreed upon. No relationship, just friendship of the deepest kind. Human and Fallen.

It still settled badly in the depths of his heart. _Hopeless Romantic to Tony's Byronic Hero_? He chuckled at his own thought, turning his head back to stare at the elevator doors as they opened.

The penthouse was huge - wooden floors, tall windows, open space with a kitchen and bar tucked in one corner, sleek and modern, with definite touches of something beyond its time. Tony was settled on the large couch, fingers plucking the chicken balls right out of the container as he waited. The TV alone was massive enough to make Bruce balk at the sheer expense that must've went into such a silly item.

"You guys coming in?" Tony asked, his head tilting up and winking towards the two standing near the entrance to his space.

"Tony, the movie theater called. They want their screen back," Bruce said with a shake of his head. How utterly ridiculous!

"I'm going to go on a limb and say you haven't actually been in one lately," Tony snapped back, eyes dancing, while Pepper just shook her head and gestured towards the couch before moving.

"I'll take the middle. You two might just start poking and prodding each other and being generally childish," Pepper teased, while Tony just grinned more and stuffed another chicken ball into his mouth.

Bruce sat down on the other side of Pepper, a bit grateful because he was sure she was right and the last thing he wanted was to get poked and prodded. "Tony, close your mouth while eating those b-" Bruce stopped dead as he realized what he had been about to say and just frowned at the food in Tony's lap as if it had personally wronged him.

Yet there was something distinctively satisfactory in the way Tony's mouth hung open, shocked and slightly in awe and Pepper's laugh was loud and joyous. Bruce's cheeks colored and head bowed forwards, eyes moving from the container settled on Tony to his own plate as Tony choked down the food in his mouth and gave a loud, "That's not the first time a man has said that to me."

"Tony!" Pepper shoved him and it was her turn to turn red, looking towards Bruce with an apologetic look.

"...I hope," Bruce found himself saying, "he wasn't too attached at the time."

Living with Tony for any length of time was a terrible blow to his polite nature, Bruce decided after that.

"No, he was kinda flat on his back moan---ow! Pepper, my ribs!" Tony flailed, rubbing his side and wincing the spot where Bruce assumed she had elbowed him.

So, that was how the pendulum swung in Tony's world. Somehow, Bruce was hardly surprised. "Why don't we start the movie before this becomes even more improper than it is?" He sat back with a small smile, and dared to try some of what was on his plate.

He wasn't sure where it all went but his food was gone before the opening credits were through. Maybe eating on a more regular basis wouldn't be such a terrible idea. He put the plate down and leaned back into the couch, settling in to watch. Pepper was a strong warmth at his side. The couch was comfortable, even if it meant he had to shift until he could get his wings settled somewhat spread out behind him. He could feel Tony having done the same, their wingtips overlapping somewhere behind Pepper.

He could feel the twitches of the fluffy red-brown and grey against his own slicked black. His eyes focused on the screen, enjoying the movie for what it was -- though some jokes were more crass than Tony's own, they didn't fail to make him smile. He didn't know at what point he looked over and found Tony's hand wrapped around Pepper's and his head burrowed into her neck, while Pepper sat there, eyes on the screen. There was a soft yawn coming from her and she leaned closer to Bruce, making him blink, before she caught her folly and offered him a spoken apology.

"...You don't need to apologize," he said softly, not wanting to wake Tony. The Fallen looked far younger than his forever-age of thirty-nine when he was asleep, and to Bruce, it was the only time he stopped talking. The thought made him smile just a touch. "You can stay here and sleep - I'll get you a pillow." He started to get up to do just that, with the intent of going back down to his given room.

"No." Pepper reached out and touched his hand lightly. "Stay." She smiled up at him and he made himself sit back down.

"It really isn't any trouble," Bruce said quietly, eyes flickering past her to where Tony stirred because of the movement of their wings.

"You should stay," she repeated, more eloquent in her words this time. "It's better if you stay."

There was something about the tone she used that made Bruce study her, the freckles across her nose, the warmth of her smile, the sleepiness in her eyes, then look down at their touching hands. Hers were elegant compared to his, but the simple touch was almost comforting. It was enough to make him settle back down, the movie somewhat forgotten until it got to the ridiculous yet comical ‘Day-Oh' scene that made Bruce understand what Tony had been speaking about.

Comfortable, warm... and his hand still tucked under Pepper's, Bruce thought he could close his eyes for a minute and relax. Instead, his head slowly fell against her shoulder, and he drifted off into soft sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

Pepper hiked her bags further onto her shoulder as she led the way out of the Tower, taking in a slow, deep breath on the air as they walked outside. The chill of fall was in the air, just enough to need a jacket when she went outside, bringing with it the first hints that winter would soon be on its way. Behind her, Tony and Bruce walked side by side in nearly matching coats - Tony dramatic in black with Bruce in a creamy brown. It looked good on them both, even if Bruce refused to accept that.

But as they got about half a block from the Tower, she realized the sounds of their footsteps had stopped and she turned around, eyes searching for them. They were looking back towards the Tower, Bruce with his head cocked strangely to the side.

She walked over just in time to hear Bruce say, "...it is a giant monument to your ego, Tony. It's as if you built a brick and mortar phallic symbol in downtown Manhattan."

Tony's jaw dropped, his mouth gaped like a fish, and his eyes widened in shock before he squawked out, "It isn't a penis, damn it!" Pepper covered her mouth to stifle the laugh that came out suddenly, watching Tony's hands wave extravagantly around as he tried to explain it.

"I'm going to agree with Bruce," Pepper finally interrupted, stepping a bit closer to them both.

"It clearly is. I don't know how I didn't notice until now." Bruce took Tony's flailing calmly in stride.

"Why else would it be so tall?" Pepper said with a slight smile.

"It's a tower! I moved into the top to be closer to work and to keep it running! While lower floors were labs and offices and -- you two don't believe me, do you?" Tony glared at both of them and Pepper only shook her head with slight mirth.

"Huh, I thought she complimented you," Bruce said thoughtfully before he turned and shoved his hands into his pockets, letting Pepper alone see the smile playing over his face as he kept walking down the street.

"I was," Pepper affirmed and started to turn away as well. She could hear Tony making a bit more of a fuss from behind her and suddenly she was gently shoved forward as Tony pushed ahead of them.

"I hate both of you," he complained, though she could tell there was fondness written all throughout those words.

"No you don't, Tony," Pepper called after him and winked to Bruce who made a little humming sound of amusement as he fell into step beside her.

It was just their way. Tony often baited Bruce, sometimes verbally, sometimes physically, as if testing the boundaries on how far he could push the other. Even having to deal with the last four months of Tony's constant badgering, and in turn Pepper having to set things right by putting herself in the middle, Bruce was opening up to them. It was a long road, filled with fights in the middle of the night when they both thought their guest was asleep and hushed conversations when he wasn't around on what to do next.

Still, all in all, Pepper was glad they had asked Bruce to stay with them. He was having a good effect on Tony, who seemed less prone to locking himself away in his labs working, which was his way of brooding, and over all, there was just a sense of happiness that had been missing before. Something, Pepper mused, they hadn't even known they were missing.

She hitched the bags higher on her shoulder, eager to get to the market. It was a joy for her and Tony to introduce Bruce to new foods whenever they could order some or manage to make it themselves, thus why she wanted to get some actual fresh vegetables - home-cooked Italian deserved fresh. Over those months they had nudged Bruce further and further into the world of food he had been missing out on for who knew how long, and now he was eating almost as regularly as Tony.

Which always left her... wondering. Without either of her Angels knowing, she had been keeping track of the little things she noticed about Bruce, things he had said, things he had done, trying to figure out exactly when he had died. Yet... every time she thought she had it right, he would say something that would date him further back.

Just the other day... Tony and Bruce had been working late, attempting to figure out how to create fully functional electronic nerves that could be used to connect living nerves into new prosthetics - limited right now to Tony's wing - when, through the silence of the living room, they both heard Bruce talking to himself as he leaned over a glowing tablet.

_Protector noster, aspice, Deus, et respice in faciem Christi tui: qui dedit redemptionem semetipsum pro omnibus..._

" _The hell was that_?" Tony's head had jerked out of the mess of wires around him, soldering gun hanging limply from his hand. Pepper remembered watching Bruce's cheeks color and head duck down, while she just made a note to find out what language he just spoke and what the words were.

After consulting with JARVIS, it had turned out to be an ancient Latin prayer, one of thanksgiving. He had spoken it softly, but so _easily_ as if he had been born speaking it or had a great deal of training in doing so. In the end, she had stared at her mess of notes and sighed, feeling like she'd hit another dead end. All she knew was he was old, very old. What age he seemed meant little according to Tony, as Angels had always appeared at whatever age they felt most comfortable and got younger and more perfect as they aged.

Which just caused a whole new slew of questions because while Bruce seemed to have died quite a long time ago, he was far from being perfect in the way Tony had described to her; Bruce had very Human imperfections in his face - wrinkles, bags beneath his eyes, crow's feet...

Pepper sighed softly to herself. So far, Bruce was a mystery she could not solve. Still, slowly, they were bringing Bruce out of his shell and the more they did, the more she enjoyed being around him. Together, Tony and Bruce seemed to form something... well. Not perfect, because they could both be stubborn fools, but something good. Very good.

She remembered so clearly the morning she came down to the lab after realizing both Tony and Bruce weren't hidden in their rooms for sleep, finding them there with Tony's head on a pillow that rested on Bruce's lap, Bruce's hand burrowed into Tony's hair and his own face downturned while soft, barely-there snores filled the room. Pepper had to stop herself from laughing out loud, knowing both were somewhat light sleepers.

Being ripped out of her thoughts by Tony grabbing her wrist wasn't something pleasant, making her yelp and look up to him. His eyes were lit up and his grin was wide as he said, "We should get some prosciutto, Bruce just said he can't remember if he's ever had it. We're remedying this. Like. Now."

"Tony," she half whined, half sighed in a quiet tone at the overgrown child. "Bruce, do you want some, or is this one of Tony's ideas? Don't let him bully you into things he wants."

"It sounds interesting," Bruce said, which pointed directly at this being Tony's idea instead of Bruce's. She shook her head at Tony with a warning look that he'd better not push too far.

"Let me know if you do want anything at the market, Bruce," she said, making sure no one around her would hear her speaking to ‘herself'.

"If I see anything, I will let you know." Though he rarely asked for _anything_ , which seemed to drive Tony up a wall. Tony had nearly equated love with giving people anything they asked for, even things they _didn't_ ask for, and she knew it was frustrating for him that Bruce wanted very little in his life.

"Promise?" she asked, as if this was a compromise to all parties involved, her brow raising as she reached back to catch his sleeve, something she found herself doing more often than not. It seemed silly to her to catch the Angel's sleeve like a child holding onto a parent's hand in case they got lost -- but she found it just as soothing as Tony's voice ringing around her, reminding her that he was still around even on the days she really didn't want him to be.

"I'll try," Bruce responded with a slight shake of his head and nodded down at the fingers gripping his sleeve with a small smile taking over his worn features.

As they came up to the whole of the market, Pepper couldn't help but smile. It was teeming with people, all trying to find the perfect fruits, vegetables, and herbs... the market had the feeling of another time and place instead of being stuck in the middle of New York. She watched as Bruce broke off and started peering at stalls, not missing the inevitable effect of his passing as people seemed to unconsciously move to the side as if they knew _someone_ was there. It wasn't the first time she had seen it happen, but it never failed to awe her. Tony just called it his ‘ _incredible aura_ ', to which she usually retorted that, _sure, that was it_.

She watched Tony wander off after Bruce, which seemed to mean she was to follow after. She took careful stock in the items Bruce's eyes lingered on, waiting for him to move on before she reached out and snatched them and paid. She smiled at the people taking the money and they always raised a brow at the way she seemed to keep glancing off to an empty space as if looking for someone.

"Are you waiting for someone, ma'am?" one finally asked her, to which she just laughed and nodded.

"Yeah, you could say that."

Eventually Bruce seemed to catch on and, with a faintly embarrassed look, silently gestured for her to move on while he backed off from the stalls, wings curling around him. "Off with you, young lady."

"Thanks." Pepper smiled and quickly darted towards Bruce. "You wouldn't have said anything otherwise," she gently accused him, shooting him a secret smile, while Tony glanced around, looking for the right produce.

"Pepper, I got the tomatoes picked out, you're going to need to come grab them," Tony called.

She walked over and pretended to be picky while Tony pointed out exactly what he wanted. They knew how to work around each other, get what Tony wanted without alerting everyone around them to his presence. The only downside was Tony knew she couldn't properly talk to him unless she wanted to look like a crazy lady, so he tended to be an ass while he had the chance.

"She's going to hit you, Tony," Bruce said to Tony, though the laugh that Tony gave seemed to distract her from everything else as he continued to pick and chose the items of food that were needed.

Then, after several minutes of coming up with the perfect batch of ingredients, just as she finished paying for a fresh, wrapped piece of basil, Bruce was suddenly _there_. His wings were spread and he was shooing them away from the stall with his wings and body, _glaring_ at something. Pepper had never seen that expression on his face before, a heavy scowl that seemed to change him entirely.

"Bruce, _Bruce_ \- what are you doing?" she hissed softly at him.

"Bruce-" Tony reached out as if to push Bruce aside when he suddenly paused, focusing on something beyond the other, and clearly understood what had Bruce's attention. "Got it, Pepper, come on. Bruce, you got the rear?"

"What has gotten _into_ you two??" Pepper tried to look past them both, but Bruce's wings blocked her view as they all moved back into an alleyway. "What is going-"

"Can you get her safely home?" Bruce asked Tony sharply.

"No probably not," Tony answered, brows furrowed as he quickly peeked around Bruce. "Also, Bruce, public area -- bad idea. Lots of people," he added, and that was when Pepper took it upon herself to shove Tony out of the way and move a few feathers.

"Bruce, I'm not going anywhere until you two explain to me what's going on." She tried to make sure her boys knew she was _not_ happy with getting shoved around like this!

Bruce looked to her and frowned, some of the hardness from his expression disappearing, but only slightly. "Someone is following you and has been for a while now. They started coming over here-" But then suddenly he tensed all over again and all but shoved her behind him. In the shadowy alley she could make out a face between the black feathers of the wing shoved in front of her. The image of an older gentleman in a black suit coming straight for her--

Tony was creeping up as if to attack and she shoved Tony back, screeching, "He's Human, you dumbass! You'll hurt him!" Then promptly shoved Bruce out of the way as well. He was not expecting her to shove him because Bruce stumbled, wings flapping hard to keep his balance, as the man came right towards her.

"Miss, _miss_ , don't let them--" She heard the other Human calling out to her. _THEM_? Considering the only people around here in that moment were her two Angels?

This guy could _see_ Tony and Bruce!

"Don't let them what?" she demanded, arms crossing over her chest as she could see from the corner of her eye Tony barely holding Bruce back. Good, because Pepper was a grown woman, and also they could be seen by at least one other person. Pepper refocused on the man in front of her. "Don't let them protect me?"

The man stared at the two behind her, then seemed to pull himself together. She caught sight of a large cross in his hand as he started to move past her, a cold look in his eyes. "I will not let them harm you - do not believe their lies. You should never trust Demons--" He didn't get to finish or touch Bruce or Tony before Pepper socked him in the jaw. The stranger dropped like a rock and Pepper shook her hand before glaring back at her two with a look of pure annoyance.

"No one calls you two Demons and gets away with it," she growled. _And you aren't about to touch my guardians, bastard._

Bruce looked a bit stunned at what she'd done, no longer fighting Tony, who pulled his hands away and clapped. "Nice, Pep." He walked over to the unconscious Human and stared down at him. "Now what-- Ah, did anyone else notice that he has this on?" He reached down and tugged at the man's collar - his _white_ collar set against the black of his clothing. Bruce peered around her and she _felt_ him tense up. Pepper looked with worry to Bruce.

"Pepper!" Tony chimed, slapping his hand on her back in a congratulatory way. "You hit a priest! I'm _so_ proud of you." He gave a mock sniff, while Pepper's eyes widened and she glanced down at the man sprawled on the ground.

"Tony! I hit a priest! This isn't funny!" she hissed, cheeks flaming red as she looked down at the poor man lying still. "Is he breathing?"

"See that's where you're wrong; it's _hilarious_ ," Tony refuted and had a hand shoved over his mouth to shush him in return.

"Technically, you knocked out a priest, Pepper," Bruce added unhelpfully, wincing away from the priest with a small frown, keeping his hand firmly across Tony's mouth-- Well, until the immature Fallen licked his hand and Bruce tugged his hand back with a look of disgust, whereas Tony just grinned roguishly.

"Not helping," Pepper murmured, rubbing her forehead and eyes flicking back and forth between the two.

"She's growing up, Bruce. Our little Pepper's growing up. I'm so proud," Tony sniffed, rubbing not-there tears away from his cheeks.

"You're strange," Bruce said, eyebrows high on his forehead, though he kept his eyes firmly on Pepper.

"We can't leave him here like this," Pepper stated, to which Bruce gave a tight nod. "I hit a priest, that's enough crimes against the church for today. I don't want to add being responsible for him getting mugged as well."

"Then put him somewhere hidden." Bruce's voice was very tight, his expression sinking into one that was difficult to read. It was as if the last few months had never happened and he retreated completely back into his shell.

For all of two seconds, she entertained the idea of reaching out to touch him, to try and soothe the stone away and bring back the more pliable man that had come after spending so much time with them. She balled her fists at her sides instead, continuously glancing at him while Tony just squatted down in front of the priest and fingered the collar lightly.

"This is New York, Bruce, you hide a body, not a live person," Tony answered matter of factly, before he seemed to still. A grave expression on his face as if he was trying to figure out a complex puzzle -- Pepper knew the expression well, had seen it on his face more than a few times in their time spent together. "Pepper, call a car. We'll take him home."

"Tony." Pepper bit her lip again. "Is that a good idea?"

"It's better than just leaving him here and you said you didn't want to do that."

"Bruce? Are you okay with that?" she asked, turning towards him already with her hand pulling her phone out. It worried her even more when Bruce said nothing in response, his eyes pinned to the unconscious man on the ground and his wings curled around him like a cloak. Pepper chewed on her lip as she tried to choose, then finally sighed. She couldn't leave the priest on the ground to get mugged and, well, if he could see Angels and Demons, it meant Bruce and Tony would never be safe unless she figured out a way to explain to him that they were _not_ Demons.

Not that telling him what a Fallen was would go any better-- this was all a terrible idea. Yet she dialed for a car to come and gestured for Tony to grab the man and bring him out to where they could dump him in the backseat of the car without anyone seeing. Hopefully.

Bruce waited only long enough to see the car pull up before he spread his wings and gave a tremendous flap as he took to the air.

She knew Tony wanted to go after him, but he didn't. Instead he helped load the priest into the car and sat hunched in a corner, watching her carefully. "He's going to be at home," he stated firmly, though Pepper couldn't tell if he said it to her or himself. She was jerked out of her reverie by a soft groan from the man between them. Before she could even think about it, she did the first thing that came to her mind and punched him again, sending him back into unconsciousness. She stared down at the priest, shocked by her own actions, ignoring the way Tony's brow rose.

"I panicked!" she said defensively but quietly, knowing Happy was driving in the front seat, separated by only a layer of thick glass. "You can't tell me you weren't thinking the same!"

"Actually, I was thinking that if he was waking up we could let him out of the car and go and make sure Bruce is all right," Tony said pointedly. She smiled reflexively at his desire to check on Bruce, but her eyes were filled with worry. Over and over, she kept wringing shaking hands into the fabric of her skirt. She had knocked out another person who had not actually hurt her or her Angels - what was _wrong_ with her!? Now she was kidnapping him! This was going from bad to worse to unforgivable by the second. When there came a touch on her hand, she jerked in surprise and looked up. Tony gently pried her hand from the now wrinkled fabric and kissed the top of it, then lightly over her knuckles.

"I know Tony," she sighed, "I definitely know. He saw you though, both of you. The last thing we need is someone declaring you something you-- well you are but," she slid a hand through her hair in frustration, "you know what I mean!"

"Yeah, I do," he grunted, releasing her hand from his grip, and stared out of his side window. "What are you going to do then, Pepper? You punched him, you deal with him."

"Try to make him see that you two are not Demons," she answered with a sigh, putting the attention-lavished hand against her chest. "What about you?"

"Make sure Bruce isn't running away." Tony's brows furrowed together; he was mulling something over, Pepper could tell. "He belongs with us. He smiles more, Pepper. I actually got a hug recently -- _without asking_. Yeah, I know right? He's made the shape that was _us_ , you know, bigger, better -- it's stretched out and now he fits. If he leaves," there was a definitely annoyed noise from Tony at the idea, "I don't think we could shrink it back down to just us."

"Tony," Pepper said with a sigh and nodded, "I know, I get it. I don't think his Otherside'll let him get too far though."

"I hope so." Pepper wouldn't say she wasn't used to the bitterness that filled Tony's tone, but after a few months of not hearing it, it was a bit of a shock.

"He'll stay, Tony. Don't worry." She wished he could be as sure as she was about it.

Happy became part of their kidnapping crime seemingly without issue... that was, until they got the priest into one of the spare rooms, Pepper trying to think what to do on the fly and not being able to acknowledge Tony while Happy was with them. Only then did he start talking to himself. "...So Ms. Potts has become part of the Mafia. Cool. Right. _Jesus Christ_ it's like Tony all over again!" She was pretty sure she wasn't supposed to overhear any of that but Tony started laughing and she just groaned, rubbing her hand down the length of her face.

"Just... put him in the chair. I can handle him, Happy," she finally said, then urged Happy out of the room entirely. "Great. We've assaulted and kidnapped a priest, Tony. Now what?" This was just getting better and better by the minute.

"Who's this ‘we' you're talking about? I saw you punch him and call a car and stuff him in the back." He smirked as she cried out his name in protest. "In my defense, I've never kidnapped a priest," Tony answered more to the point, rocking back on his heels. "I only ended up bringing home drunk supermodels and getting Happy's dad to stuff them into spare rooms." Pepper's look was of sheer disbelief, annoyance roving over her. "This is all on you. Maybe you should get some handcuffs and cuff him to the chair? I don't know. I tended to stay away from being the one cuffed to things."

"Tony! Not helping!"

"You're supposed to be the one with a plan, Pep, not me."

"You're an asshole!"

"I don't think Happy heard you yet, Pepper. Wanna scream that a bit louder? Make him _really_ think you've lost it."

Pepper knew he was right, even if he was a jerk right now. She glared at Tony before she went to find some sort of items to bind the passed-out priest. When she came back with, of all things, some of her least-favorite scarves, she found Tony rooting through what had to be the priest's wallet.

"So, this is _Father_ Phillip J. Coulson, and he's got some official looking badge from something called S.H.I.E.L.D," Tony informed her, then used the wallet to point at the priest. "Who you might want to get bound up as quickly as possible as I think he's waking up-- is that the scarf I gave you for your birthday?"

To that she said nothing, as it was indeed the very scarf. She wrangled the priest's hands back and tied him up as best she could, then moved to stand beside Tony just in time for Coulson to groan. _This has to be a new low in my life_ , Pepper thought to herself. She took a breath to steady herself and crossed her arms over her chest, putting on the best ‘ _I'm not happy_ ' face she could manage feeling so guilty about the whole situation.

The priest shook his head a few times and the guilty ball that formed in the pit of her stomach just tightened. She bit her bottom lip and once again steeled herself, though the man of the cloth seemed to come to his senses after a few seconds. "I feel like I got hit by a truck," he started, glancing around the room passively while Tony bristled next to her and glared at him and waggled the wallet around like it was a laser pointer. "Did you get the license plate?"

"Why were you following me?" she said weakly, brows drawing tight as she realized that the voice she just used was far from what she was aiming for. In fact, the panicked words were the complete opposite.

"I was trying to figure out who the Demons were following," Coulson said quietly, his eyes focused right on Tony.

Pepper's eyes widened and she jutted her thumb at Tony. "Him?" There was a confirming nod and Pepper simply pushed the bizarre urge to punch the priest down again, instead just gave a tiny humorless laugh. "If he's a Demon, I'm Mary Poppins."

"Well, technically Mary, the jury is still out on me. I mean, when I was alive I was quite a Demon in the sa-- Ow!" Tony squawked, rubbing his abused ribs while Pepper gave him a stern look. "Yes ma'am."

"Ma'am, I'm not sure what lies he has spun for you, but he is no Angel," Coulson shifted in his seat, glancing around once before looking back, "and there was another with black wings."

She reached to put her hand on Tony's chest before he could react and shook her head, but the Fallen simply sneered, handing the wallet to her before walking off. "They're not Angels, that's true," she started slowly, "but they're definitely not Demons." She bit her bottom lip again while Coulson stared back at her with a slight incline of his head. "You're awfully calm for someone who's been kidnapped and, you know, restrained."

"It happens more than you think," the other Human replied, finally offering a slight smile.

"That's... not what I expected."

"It never is, Miss. If they aren't Angels or Demons, what do you believe them to be?" His tone remained flat and calm, without the sarcasm she would have expected.

"They're Fallen--" she stated with a small wary glance down at him, hands fumbling with the wallet as she opened it and stared down at it, "or at least Tony is. I'm not sure about Bruce, but he's definitely _not_ a Demon. Far from it."

"Far from it would be an Angel. Their wings are stained, and one is the color of a Demon. A Fallen Angel is a Demon - Lucifer himself is a Fallen Angel." Coulson's tone stayed away from preachy and stayed more in the tone of someone attempting to educate her.

"No, a Fallen Angel is cast from God for falling to temptations," she replied, eyes hardening has she flipped through the wallet. "Just because they fell doesn't mean they're Demons. It means they screwed up, like you did when you insulted my friends."

"And what is the difference between a Fallen, cast from God for falling to temptations, and a Demon who couldn't get into Heaven because they fell to their temptations? Lucifer himself was once an Angel, beloved by God, until he fell to the temptation of Pride. They are creatures of lies." But something in his face made him seem... ashamed. Ashamed? No. Pepper had to be reading that wrong. Coulson sounded so sure about what he was saying, but his eyes said the opposite.

"Tony and Bruce are not creatures of lies, trust me. I've seen Demons. My two aren't even remotely Demons," she said, lips drawn tight as she watched his face for more clues. "Tony's always been a hedonist and careless, but he never, ever has done something that outright warranted being called a Demon! Everything's not black and white, Father. There's only shades of grey."

"The stains of their wings speak volumes, Miss," Coulson said quietly. "I have seen Demons; I have spoken to them. One came to me, speaking of wanting redemption, offering anything I wanted to seek it, but Miss... they all wear their sins for us to see." The smile he gave was dry. "Because of them, you've chosen to kidnap and tie me up with," a visible shift of his arms, "scarves?"

"Their wings don't make them Demons," she shot back. "I mean, you don't know them by anything other than their wings! Neither of them are Demons -- and don't change the subject!" Her cheeks flushed at the mention of her lacking anything more than scarves to hold him. "Look, who are you to claim who's a Demon and who isn't? I know them - they're not Demons and if you try to hurt either of them, I'll punch you where the sun doesn't shine," she snapped, attempting to look menacing towards the Father. "And while we're at it, what the hell is S.H.I.E.L.D?"

"Their wings give them away like a uniform," Coulson replied, unruffled by her threats. He looked a bit uneasy at the mention of SHIELD, however. "SHIELD... I only recently started to work with them. They protect Humanity from the interference of otherworldly beings."

"Yeah, uh, no. How long have you been able to see these otherworldly beings?" Pepper took the SHIELD comment with a grain of salt. Eyes pinned on the man in front of her, she fiddled with the edge of her coat.

"My whole life. It was how I ended up choosing my path." He gave another of those dry smiles.

"I see." She clicked her tongue. "Then you're completely in the dark about how Fallen work." She took a few deep breaths to calm herself, chewing on her bottom lip a bit to try and figure out a way to explain this. "Not every Fallen becomes a Demon -- some fall because they made a mistake and they aim for redemption."

"How do you know that is true, Miss...?" With a leading tone suggesting he still had no idea to whom he was speaking. She found it strange, him not knowing who she was. After all, she was constantly in the media for being the head of Stark Industries and a major figure in New York City. Maybe it had something to do with being a priest.

She straightened her posture and her lip was bitten again. Could it be that they would tell her anything less than the truth? No, she didn't believe that was possible. Not with Bruce or Tony.

"You're not serious." She rubbed her forehead, trying to think past her treaherous thoughts. Something he said had caught her attention. "Wait, you mentioned a Demon. Seeking his own redemption. You're not getting out of this easily. Look, Father Coulson, I don't know who you are and what the hell SHIELD does -- but those two are harmless. The only reason you're tied up is because I honestly didn't know what else to do. We couldn't leave you unconscious out there and we sure as hell couldn't have left you roaming around Stark Tower."

"Like I said, I only was recently approached by SHIELD myself. The man in charge didn't exactly seem happy to be working with a priest, but somehow they knew of my ability to see the Otherworldly beings. I do appreciate that you didn't leave me on a New York City street unconscious, but not so much your right hook." He worked his jaw with a quiet laugh. "Their goal is to protect Humanity from those beings and in this case, their goals and mine happened to align. I saw the Dem-- _Fallen_ following you and sought to protect you. Do with that information what you will."

Suddenly his arms came forward and he rubbed his wrists. Her hands flexed at her sides as the man before her freed himself, cheeks flushing in faint embarrassment at how easily he seemed to have done so. "You might need to learn a few new knots, by the way," he said so dryly she actually believed he was trying to give her advice instead of being sarcastic. He put his hands on his knees and remained seated, looking at her. "You learned what you know of, I assume, through the Fallen that seemed very focused on protecting you. How do you know what he says is true?"

Her eyes dropped to the ground for a few seconds to think seriously about what he was putting forth. How did she know what Tony said was true? How could she? Something deep in the back of her mind yelled that she just _did_ know -- but there was that tiny, tiny voice helplessly pointing out that she didn't. For all she knew, Tony and Bruce were going to murder her one night. She found herself reaching up to rub the pressure points on her brow, soothing the sudden ache that formed.

"I don't," she all but whispered, though her voice grew in strength as she spoke again, "but isn't that what blind faith is about? Believing in something you have no proof exists? I imagine if you ask another priest why he believes in God, you'll discover that his answer is different than yours. So on and so on. People believe because of their own, personal reasons, and I believe in them."

"That's very well spoken," the priest replied, his hands folding on his lap, shoulders hunching forward as he shifted his stance to dangle clasped hands between his legs. Just that simple act struck Pepper with familiarity that sang _Tony_ in every molecule of air between the two. "Putting your faith in two that could very well be Demons, blindly trusting them. You're really willing to make that gamble?"

"Wouldn't you?" Pepper stopped to gauge the reaction from the other, her head tilted to the side. "We take risks every day, some less likely to kill us than others."

"You're a lot more courageous than I gave you credit for."

"Most people seem to miss that."

"All I want to do is protect His flock - from themselves, from the Demons... and from the Demons wearing Human skins." A tiny smile as he gestured slightly. "Am I free to go? I can't force you to do anything, Miss, only offer my advice."

"Do you have a card or something? I could offer you one of mine in return," she found herself saying. "While I don't agree with what you're calling my friends," Pepper paused and patted herself down, stopping at her hips. "I like knowing there's someone else out there that can see them."

"You have my wallet, Miss," Coulson said with a small smile of amusement. "Priests, I'm afraid, don't carry cards with us."

"Right, sorry, used to dealing with businessmen." She frowned and moved to grab a piece of paper and a pen from her purse. "Just jot your number here. Ask for Ms. Pott's card at the front desk on your way out, they'll give it to you."

When she gave her name, Coulson finally smiled properly. "Thank you." He took the pen from her, writing down a number. "...My office, Ms. Potts, in the church. Never hesitate to call if you need help, or someone to talk to."

"Let me walk you out, Father Coulson." She offered him his wallet, careful not to let their fingers touch. "You should remember never to judge a book by its cover, by the way."

He took his wallet, tucking it away. "Likewise." His gaze to her was meaningful in light of their conversation about whether or not she could truly trust the two Fallen around her. Though he did manage to offer her his arm like a gentlemen and Pepper did take it to lead him to the elevator, it wasn't until the priest was safely descending that she noticed Tony standing near the door of the room where the priest and she had spoken.

"Tony?" She questioned, eyes narrowing at him as she briskly walked back towards him. "What's wrong?"

"Do you believe that we're Demons?" he hissed, the tone of his voice dark and annoyed, sharp eyes pinned on her in all sorts of uncomfortable ways. "Do you honestly believe that Bruce is a Demon?"

"You were listening?!" she said loudly, hands flailing before Tony shoved a hand over her mouth, which she responded to by gripping his wrist and pulling it away. "Tony, the hell!"

"What was I supposed to do, Pepper?! Let you talk to him and possibly get hurt? I don't know about you, but I don't plan on letting you die before you hit 80," he snapped, though the way he recoiled afterwards spoke volumes to her. He was afraid, worried for her. She reached out and patted his arc reactor, making his breath stutter and wings quit their nervous wiggle and shifting.

"Tony," she murmured to him, leaning towards him to soothe his agitation with a hug, though she blinked as he firmly held her by her arms, keeping her a safe distance away, as if he knew if she got too close, everything he wanted to say was going to slip away before he could say it.

"Bruce _isn't_ a Demon, Pepper," he stated firmly. "I don't know _what_ he is, but he's not a Demon. We both saw what his Otherside is like around us. We both know he likes us. He hasn't had an incident in so fucking long - four months, Pepper, since you got hurt," he added. "I don't care what you think of me - we both know that I would not call myself anything but a Fallen, but never, ever think of Bruce as a Demon. He doesn't need that from us."

She stumbled as Tony pulled her in close, wrapping arms around her and hugging her, his face burrowing into her hair as she sighed quietly.

She still wasn't sure what they were, Bruce in particular, but she did know they were both hers no matter what. She held onto Tony, feeling the warmth of his body as his wings wrapped around her, the strength of his arms, and tried not to let Coulson's words get too deep in her mind. She put her _faith_ against his calm, sure words. She believed in Tony, in the man who gave his life to save her.

"You're right," she said quietly. Speaking of Bruce... "Tony, where _is he_?" Pepper pulled her head back and looked sharply to him, her eyes going wide. "JARVIS, is Bruce in the Tower?"

_"Yes, Ms. Potts. He is currently located in his bedroom."_

"And you didn't go and--" Tony stuck his hand over her mouth again, frowning slightly.

"Pepper, I knocked, he didn't answer, and despite what you may think, I do have boundaries," he muttered, squeezing her tighter to him, wings flapping again. "I'm worried about him."

"Have I really gone without a change for that long?" Bruce's voice asked before she could respond. Pepper struggled to break free, only a bit alarmed that he managed to sneak up on them so quickly and silently. When she finally peeked out from behind the red-brown and grey of Tony's wings, she could see Bruce's body leaning against the far corner of the hall.

 _"It has been four months, three days, seven hours--"_ JARVIS began before Tony cut him off.

"You really have," Tony simplified. "See? Being here's good for you."

Bruce frowned, saying nothing in response, but much moved in his dark eyes. He turned and went back into his bedroom, door staying open. Pepper and Tony both seemed to move in sync, racing after Bruce and huddled at the entrance to his room, almost tripping over each other in an attempt to get into it. "Bruce?" Pepper finally asked, eyes tracking his movements. "Did we upset you?"

"No," was the quick response, his back to them as he looked out the window.

"I think it has something to do with the priest," Tony suggested, and judging from the way Bruce tensed up even further, he was right.

Pepper gave Tony a look before asking Bruce, "May I come in?"

"Can _I_ come in?" Tony asked right after. Bruce didn't respond to either of them, just tightened his wings around his body until he nearly disappeared behind them. Pepper looked up at Tony who muttered, "He didn't say no." Then nudged at her to go in, forcing her to catch herself before she stumbled.

She padded across the room slowly, reaching out to pet a wing. She felt it shudder and tighten around Bruce, so she withdrew the hand. "Bruce? Want to talk about it?" she asked, trying once again and roughly smacking Tony's hands away from the wings and fixing him with a firm stare which she got a wounded animal look in return for. "You don't have to - we're just worried."

"Is he gone?" Bruce asked in that soft voice of his but it held a huge knot of tension, and even though it didn't surprise her, Pepper could see green hues flushed along his fingers where he crossed his arms.

 _He must be holding everything inside, trying not to change._ She wanted to hold him like she had hugged Tony only minutes ago but barely kept her desire in check.

"Yeah, he's gone," Tony answered, reaching out to slowly pry one of Bruce's hands away from his arms, then began lightly massaging the palm. "Hey, deep breathing okay? Remember when we talked about this?" Pepper's eyebrows rose in interest, but Tony seemed to ignore her. "Deep breathing, Bruce. In with me, out with me. In." Tony sucked in a breath, staring pointedly at her, making her suck in one too, then slowly whispered an, "Out."

Though his eyes remained closed, Bruce followed Tony's instructions and slowly, the green receded until only tanned flesh was left behind. Only then did Bruce open his eyes back up and he looked to Tony. "What ended up happening with him?" Clearly not wanting to talk about the fact he almost changed despite his long stretch of abstaining from doing such.

"Pep and him talked, he called us Demons, thinks we're going to hurt Pepper," he answered drolly, almost like she wasn't there and suddenly was shut out of their little world.

"I didn't believe him," she muttered softly.

"...He has every right to think we are Demons," Bruce whispered, pulling his hand away, only to have it snatched again as he looked out the window. "There is less difference between us and the Demons than us and the Angels."

"I don't believe that," Pepper added, reaching for the hand Tony wasn't massaging, lacing their fingers together, catching the slightly shocked look that fluttered over Bruce's face. Confusion was written all over him, like he was somehow unworthy and unsure of why he was being shown such compassion from them. "You two aren't Demons. You're not Angels, but you're definitely not that. You're just... mine?"

"Possessive much?" Tony cocked a brow, a slightly pleased grin on his face.

"Mood ruiner," she carefully prodded back, glancing up at Bruce with a smile.

"You don't understand," Bruce said quietly, shaking his head. " _Tony_ was an Angel, once. He proved himself to be worthy of Heaven. He wore the white wings and halo of the blessed. He Fell, that cannot be denied, but he was... worthy." The last word fell from his lips as heavy as a weight.

"First off, I only got let in because I repented right before I died," Tony noted, squeezing Bruce's hand in his lightly. "Second, Angels are dicks as we've proved." Pepper heard, more than saw, him tapping on his arc reactor.

"Bruce," Pepper cut in, closing her eyes as she squeezed his hand tight, "worthy or not, you're still mine."

Suddenly, Bruce pulled his hands away from both of them, looking sharply between them. "I'm no one's. Not yours, not God's, not Lucifer's himself. The difference between Tony and me is that regardless of the reason, he was allowed into Heaven. I have seen neither Heaven nor Hell nor will I ever. I died my Human death and neither side could have me!"

Tony flinched first, she knew because she heard the quiet mechanical grind, but Pepper was sure she did too, more out of the stunning effect of the voice that rose from almost out of nowhere from Bruce. "You're right, you're no one's," she said calmly. "What I meant by ‘you're mine' isn't that I own you, what I meant was that it doesn't matter what you are, Bruce."

"You are so making this sappy," Tony muttered, though he shut up with the stern look that Pepper gave him.

"You're still my friend. You have a place where no matter what happens, you can stay. You could leave and come back five years later and this room would be waiting for you, because even if you don't think you don't belong anywhere, we think you belong with us. Are we clear?" Pepper became unsure of where the forcefulness of her voice came from, as if she was trying to make the winged being understand something that was even beyond her.

"Can I ask a quick question before you guys get all ‘kumbaya-y'?" Tony piped up, eyebrow shooting high. "I think this is more of a pressing matter, no offense Pep. Why did that priest bug you so much, Bruce? Did he give you hives? Did he touch your no-no square?"

Pepper turned her head and stared at Tony before she reached up and slapped him in the back of the head. "Seriously, what the _hell_ is wrong with _you_?!"

"He was a priest," Bruce said tightly, cutting through Pepper's outrage.

"Okay." Tony nodded, seemingly unfazed by her outrage as well, though he did reach out and hold her hands away from him. "Why does his being a priest bother you?"

There was a heavy silence, one filled with something unspoken, then Bruce said softly, "I was one."

Tony paused, mouth opening and closing, and Pepper found his stunned silence adorable, though she didn't say that. "That's why you hid?"

"I didn't hide," Bruce snapped, or at least the closest thing Pepper had ever heard him come to snapping. "I didn't want to... react to him." She could read between those lines; he was afraid he would change. And he nearly had even without having met Coulson.

"Oh," she murmured, wincing back, though the words hung clear in her ears. "Bruce? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you by bringing him here..."

"Is that why you can speak Latin-- was that a _prayer_?" Pepper could hear Tony muttering to himself.

"I assume he's gone, if you're both here." Which, if Bruce's tone was anything to go by, was enough. "Is he going to try and hunt us down?" Since he hadn't listened in on Pepper and the priest like Tony had.

"No," Pepper said with a frown, "and if he tries, I'll protect you." She tried to steel herself, though the weary way Bruce was speaking just drove a spike through her. "No one is going to hurt you."

"Okay, look, you guys are getting touchy-feely and I don't know how to deal with that. Are our 'kumbayas' out now? Can I have Bruce back for a bit after I start the food?" Tony huffed.

"You're like a kid," Pepper murmured, rubbing her forehead lightly. Bruce, however, didn't seem ready to go anywhere. He had turned back out to the view of the city, body as tight and tense as when he first came to the Tower. She moved up beside him, giving Tony a long look before she touched Bruce's arm with just her fingertips. "You died as a priest?" she asked softly.

He didn't look down at her hand, didn't look at her face, and Bruce's expression was a mask of tragedy even if his voice stayed calm while he spoke. "I took my own life as a priest, at the very altar of the God I had lost my faith in."

For only a second she squeezed his arm tighter and finally realized Tony had retreated, knowing he was useless in this sort of situation and was more liable to run away than anything else. "Wouldn't you be a ...?" she started, unable to follow through with the last word that wanted to drop. "You wouldn't have..."

"It all happened so quickly," Bruce whispered, his gaze so very far away. "It didn't matter to me what happened; it could never be worse than what _they_ had suffered through."

"Who?" She whispered, reaching out to grab his hand once more, making a stunted noise in the base of her throat as she was blocked by a wing. "Bruce, please," she quietly murmured, going to twist herself in front of the other and lightly press against the wings that shielded him. "I want to know."

"You don't want to know," he insisted, his eyes focusing on her. In his eyes she could see fear and pain and for the first time, _age_. Age greater than she could imagine and it stunned her. "You don't want to know."

"Yes I do, Bruce," she pressed, parting the wings fully to step inside of his little bubble, for the first time invading instead of coaxing. She felt somewhat proud when the wings opened for her and then closed around her like a black curtain. "I want to know about you and what's hurting you."

In the dark, quiet cocoon of his wings, his eyes were even darker, his voice softer. "I've done too many horrible things in my life, Pepper. My death... is one of the worst. I couldn't protect them. _He_ couldn't protect them, even though they were faithful..."

Those words ripped tiny holes in her heart, the meaning behind them -- the implications and all. She sucked in a breath and slowly pushed herself forwards, carefully putting his arms around her and tucking her head under his chin as she gave him a tight hug like she had been wanting so badly to do. "Bad things happen to good people," she whispered, her own voice soft and careful. "But there's always a reason for it, Bruce, always."

"No." It was just a whisper but it held such pain. "There isn't always a reason. Humans do such terrible things to each other." His hand cupped her head, so tenderly, as if he would break her, but she could feel him tremble against her. "Humans are little better than the animals we came from."

Fingertips dug into his shirt, her eyes closing, and she tried to settle the feeling that there was so much she really didn't know and Bruce would rather not share - but at the same time longed to. "I... I swear it, Bruce," she whispered to him. "I want to know more about you. Why you hide so much from us. Why you don't trust _anyone_..."

"...I trust you." So soft she barely heard it fall from Bruce's lips.

"Then prove it," she challenged back, just as softly.

There was a long pause, then Bruce sighed against her hair. His other hand came up to her head, both hands moving to cup her skull gently between them. Their foreheads touched, and she felt his voice more than she heard it.

_"...I was the shepherd to my flock, His voice among His people... I guarded a Relic of vast power, or so we had been told, but more... I guarded His people from the pains and dangers of losing their very soul, so He told us before He died."_

Then the world flashed before her and before Pepper could draw another breath, she was lost to his words.

It felt like she was thrown through time, saw things she never could see unless -- She finally, _finally_ understood why she never could pinpoint a death date. So old, he was so old, always alone before Tony and her. Her chest tightened and fingers subconsciously gripped at his shirt a bit harder.

_She could taste the clean air that had touched his tongue, see the people he watched over, provided counsel to. A woman with dark hair and a wild smile was always near him. The village was beautiful in a rustic way, full of life and warmth even though a dark cloud hung over it - the taint of war, Bruce's mind told her. She tried to place the time, the exact date, but it kept escaping her like a word on the tip of her tongue. Not important, not important... what was important were the feelings surrounding her. Joy, laughter, love, and the sureness of Faith. His name hadn't always been Bruce._

_He believed in the word passed to him, taught to him, of the man who had been a part of God himself. Believed that he would protect these people's souls and that they would in turn be protected by their faith, especially the woman he loved. She loved even more deeply than him, and together they helped their village, served the Church that was no more grand than any of the other homes but served as a gathering place for all._

_Until one night when the Demons came, Demons dressed in the skin and golden armor of man._

_Hearing the thunder of hooves drove him from the small church, looking to the front of what seemed like an army to his eyes. It was only his faith that let him step into their path, holding up a hand. "This is a place of peace - we want nothing to do with you. Pass on." His eyes were hard, his voice calm, but his hand shook as he stared down the men. This was the War coming to their village, a war of men against other men that took the lives of so many. Not here. Not here. Not his home._

_The enemy came to a stop, one by one, their horses tossing their heads and snorting in the cool night air. One who sat high on his horse came right up to the priest, looking down at the holy man who would try to stop them. There was an endless moment, their eyes meeting in silent judgment of two very different kinds - one in war, one in peace. Then the general laughed, sneered. "Kill him. We'll make an example of this place and no one will defy us again!"_

_A shining weapon came down on him and then darkness fell._

"When I awoke, there was nothing left but smouldering ashes," _the words drifted, guiding her awake to stare at the carnage that was left. The once clean air was tainted with the smell of smoke and death. All around him, she could see the bodies left strewn along what had previously been a street, now only a final resting place for the people that he had sworn to protect._

_All around him was a dizzying blur of blood and smoke and fire. Everything was gone that he had known in his life. Blood dripped down his face from the strike that had knocked him out, smoke burned his eyes. A single image came clear to her of that beautiful woman from before; then it was overtaken by darkness and more blood and he screamed..._

_He ran, crimson smeared over his hands, and she heard someone scream over and over until Pepper realized she was hearing him. Stumbling back into the church, Bruce scuffed his palms on stone as he fell, staggering in until he stood before the small altar where the Relic sat. He had believed that they would be protected, safe from this war; it had found them instead. She could feel the rough stone under his fingertips, the heaving sobs that left him as he pushed and pushed the stone top off of the altar, staring down at the beautifully crafted sword -- stained with nothing._

Her own breathing picked up, hands wrapping so tight around Bruce, she watched helplessly as the blade was withdrawn and finally she couldn't take it anymore -- "I get it!" she sobbed hard, ducking her head closer.

His head pulled away from hers, his hands dropping from where they had held her close. His wings stayed around her as his eyes opened, looking down to her. "...I told you," he whispered, tears falling along his cheeks. She reached up and slowly rubbed her thumb along his cheekbone, smearing the tears.

"I'm sorry," she murmured after a few seconds. "I'm so sorry you had to go through that, Bruce."

"Don't be sorry." His hand mirrored hers, catching a tear she hadn't felt. "Please. It... was a very long time ago. Another life."

"That's why you wandered alone, isn't it?" she asked, leaning into his hand slightly before lowering her other to wrap around his wrist and hold on with a loose grip. Beneath her fingertips beat a pulse, one that had confused and frightened her the first time she had realized Tony had a pulse as well when he came back. Something, Tony had told her vaguely, to do with their hearts and the energy created from them.

"Don't..." she startled herself with a hiccup, laughing at her emotional response to that, "don't do this to Tony," she warned, dropping the previous subject while she offered another, more sincere smile. "He can't handle it when other people cry -- I'll hate to see what he did if he sprung a leak." She knew her humor was weak at best, but she couldn't stop from smiling. "I'll protect you," she added, dotting a careful kiss to the middle of his palm.

"Protect me?" He laughed just a little but it was weak. "Pepper... I don't need to be protected. _You_ need to be protected, little mortal."

A soft snort erupted from her chest as she tilted her head up at him. "Doesn't mean you don't need to be protected, Bruce," she murmured against his hand, dragging another kiss along it as she shifted closer to him once more. "I protect you and Tony as much as you both protect me."

The look on Bruce's face showed how much he believed that as he shook his head. "If you say so," he said. "I think... all of this was enough for today. I want to go down into the labs and work." Which meant he wanted to hide from everything that had happened.

"Come out for dinner," she commented, releasing his shirt and cheek as she began to step back away from him, wings spreading out to allow her out of his space. "All right?"

"Have JARVIS remind me?" Bruce suggested, his wings settling against his back again. He turned to leave, then paused and reached down and picked something up. It ended up tucked behind her ear before he walked out. Pepper reached up, palmed it gently, then stared down at the black feather in her hand.


	7. Chapter 7

Glancing down at her phone, Pepper gave a soft sigh. Coulson's number was tucked in her palm and she switched her gaze to stare at it. The idea rolled around her skull - should she call him? Ask about SHIELD? Or should she play it safe and not get involved? Opinions were needed... And she couldn't ask Tony, he'd stare at her like she had grown a second head and Bruce... She coughed and sighed once more, fingertips rubbing her brow as she realized what she _could_ do.

Finally setting the number down, she pocketed the cellphone and moved slowly to the elevator to head down to the boys' lab. There, with little surprise, she saw Tony buried up to his elbows in something that sparked, while Bruce was bent over what resembled a mass of wires and... was that an _arm_? "Bruce...?" she called over with concern.

He looked up, blinking from behind a pair of glasses - where had he even gotten those? "Yes?"

"...What... exactly are you doing?" she asked as she stepped closer.

"I'm attempting to use the schematics from Tony's creation of his wing to replicate nerves with the idea of connecting the biological and mechanical for prosthetics." He picked up the arm; this close she could see it was actually a fake and Pepper let out a breath. Too realistic for this early in the morning.

Cupping a hand over her chest she nodded, staring at the item that was indeed edging her into the uncanny valley. "For a moment, I thought you and Tony went off and cut a man's arm off for it." A weak grin was given in response, though Bruce's eyebrow rose and he tilted his head.

"What?"

"I just wouldn't put it past Tony to actually go cut off someone's arm in a fit of what he calls ‘science'."

She almost laughed when Bruce's lower lip stuck out, though he'd never admit to a pout. "I'm not going to cut someone's arm off, Pepper--"

"I was joking, Bruce, just joking."

"She was serious about me though," Tony chirped up from nearby, not even bothering to pull his head out of the metal mess he was buried in.

Bruce just shook his head with a sigh. "Slowly I'm learning to ignore him." He offered a small smile to Pepper at that and it grew when she laughed.

"For your own sanity? That's for the best." Her hand touched Bruce's arm; a feeling of pride and warmth went through her when there was no flinch, no pulling away. "Anyway, I came down to ask if you boys wanted to come with me out to the Institute."

"...The Institute?" Bruce asked, tilting his head as he pushed his glasses up to sit loosely in his curls.

"Where Pepper grew up," Tony answered for her, still not looking up from the mess in front of him, smearing a long stripe of black across his forehead and huffing a soft swear.

"Yes, _thank you_ , Tony." She grinned and shook her head. "I figured since you've shared so much of yourself with me, I could return the favor."

"Where is it?" Bruce was already packing up though, carefully putting away his work, unlike Tony who tended to leave his things everywhere.

"North of here, nearly over the state line into Connecticut. Do you know North Salem?" Pepper asked, then gave a little dismissive gesture when he shook his head. "Don't worry about it. Tony? Are you coming?"

"Two minutes!" he called over, but didn't even start to untangle himself. Pepper lifted a brow and already knew she'd never get him out of whatever he was working on.

So instead she just looked to Bruce. "Come on, we'll take my car and give Happy the day off."

"Shouldn't we...?" He glanced back at Tony and Pepper just smiled and shook her head.

"He's going to be buried in that for hours. He won't come up for air until he thinks it's feeding time," Pepper murmured carefully and gestured towards the elevator. "Shall we?"

"Wouldn't flying be faster?"

"Car's more my style," she stated, wrapping her arm around his and smiling to herself. Bruce led her down to the garage and she snagged her keys. "Besides," she said as they climbed into her car, hiding a smile as Bruce shifted over and over to get comfortable with his wings, "Tony took me flying one and only one time."

"What happened?"

"...Let's just say his attention span is limited when he's not concentrating on something." Pepper grimaced at the memory.

"He dropped you." Pepper could tell it was more a statement than a question, and Pepper just smiled.

"He definitely did." The smile on Bruce's face was worth it as she fussed over him to help him get comfortable. "He swears it was on purpose, to get the blood running. I may have hit him for it."

"You weren't hurt, were you?" Bruce stared at her, even as he tried to bat her hands away while he settled his wings. "Mom, I'm fine. It isn't as if I'm about to get hurt in an accident."

With a groan, Pepper sat back in her seat. "Please stop picking up Tony's bad habits, Bruce."

"I don't know what you mean," he teased with a slight smile.

"You two, I swear..." She laughed quietly and started the car up.

It wasn't long before they were moving through city traffic out towards I-87 and her mind was focused less on driving than what little she knew about SHIELD from Father Coulson. Was it just the priest who believed the Fallen and Demons were so similar, or was it all of SHIELD? Why had they approached Coulson? One thing had been bothering her more than anything else - that Father Coulson was _right_ about Lucifer, the Devil himself, being a Fallen Angel. While she stayed away from religion, it wasn't exactly difficult to Google some information. Once he had been an Angel, beloved by God, then led a revolution against God and his loyal Angels. Defeated, he was cast out of Heaven along with the Angels that had followed him, who became the first Demons.

One of a thousand legends, stories, biblical references, and more about Lucifer, the Devil, Satan...

Pepper had given up at some point on trying to understand it all.

She lost herself in these thoughts, knowing that there was at least one person who would have answers for her. "I... wasn't quite honest with you," she started, brows knitting together. "While I grew up at the Institute... showing you it wasn't my first intention. There's a lot of people there who can and will see you. Some might just hear you. And one may even smell you." A wry grin was given in Bruce's direction, eyes catching Bruce's for only a second, before they went back to the road. "I need some answers and I hate to say it, but you or Tony can't give them to me."

Bruce looked sharply at her with her admission. "What do you mean? Where are you taking me?" There was a tiny hint of accusation in his voice and maybe a touch of fear. "Just how _many_ people are we talking about?"

"We're going to the Institute!" Pepper reaffirmed, frowning at the other, taking her hand off of the steering wheel to pat his shoulder. "It's for... kids who can well, see things," she said with a wince, though didn't wait for Bruce's reaction before she continued. "I've always been able to see Angels and stuff, but it caused... problems, so after my parents died, my aunt and uncle sent me there."

"They sent you to live somewhere else instead of raising you?" Bruce frowned slightly at the idea; she could see it in the rear view mirror. "How old were you?" His voice had gotten softer.

"13," she answered with a soft snort. "My parents died the same year as Tony. Just around Christmas instead of July. They'd be proud of me, I'm betting. Taking care of myself and you and Tony." When Bruce said nothing, she sighed softly and tried to defuse the situation. "The Institute takes in children who have abilities beyond the norm and many can see Angels. More than that, they do what they can to help children and sometimes, even Angels and Demons."

Once more Bruce's silence struck her still. She paused to mull over her next words before she reached out for his hand. "I need to just ask the headmaster what he knows about Father Coulson's... SHIELD-thing. He's a good guy, I swear, Bruce. You'll like him."

"Why do you care about SHIELD?" Bruce asked with a darker tone. "Tony told me about it, but... they think we're nothing but Demons."

"I want to know what they are," she defended again. "I want to know what they do in depth and I want to be well-informed in case someone comes after either of you thinking of you two as Demons. You're _not_." She knew it wasn't helping entirely because Bruce went quiet again. His arms crossed over his chest as he looked out the window. The rest of the trip ended up in silence as they made their way up to North Salem which left her entirely too much time to go over what she wanted to talk to the Professor about.

When they pulled up to the Institute, she leaned back in the seat and looked to the front doors. "It's been a long time," she murmured more to herself than Bruce, who was eyeing the surroundings cautiously. "Come on, no time like the present."

She took in the sight, taking in every little detail she missed since the last time she was there. Leaves pooled at the base of the trees and Pepper just smiled at the familiar sight. She shot a look over her shoulder, watching Bruce's wings flutter nervously and, well, Pepper couldn't stop the smallest smile at the idea that Tony really was rubbing off on Bruce. Slowly, she reached back and snatched his hand in hers, tugging lightly while she moved towards the door.

Just as she lifted her hand to knock, the door opened. Standing there was a gruff but familiar-looking man. "Logan!"

"Potts," Logan responded, head nodding, a cigar clenched between his teeth. Wild black locks stuck up every which way and he just stopped for two moments, sniffing the air and fixing deep blues right on Pepper with a brow stuck up high on his forehead. "Did you really need another one? The old one's more than enough trouble as it is."

"...Who is this?" Bruce asked, unhappy at being declared ‘another one'.

"Logan," she answered all too quickly, before staring straight at the other. "Logan, I don't have another one."

"It sure as hell doesn't smell like you brought the pain in the ass, Potts," he growled, folding his arms over his chest and looking down at her while she stared up at him with a raised brow of her own.

"I don't know what you mean."

"Your new tag-along doesn't even smell like a Fallen."

"Can he not hear me?" Bruce asked, scowling towards Logan. "Did he just call Tony a pain in the ass?" Pepper heard a protective growl in his voice that made her breathe in hard.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Pepper answered both of them, cheeks flaming red and head tilting downwards.

"Did you leave the other one at home?"

"He was working, it's complicated."

"Thank god," Logan chewed on the cigar in his mouth for a bit longer and shrugged. "One less pain in the ass--" Logan's head fell back when Bruce's wing whapped him. There was a snarl and a hiss. "Bub-- Don't even start," he hissed to Bruce, who he couldn't even see. "Make sure your new tag-along doesn't cause any trouble. Last thing I need is my bed booby-trapped."

"I'll do it again if he keeps insulting Tony," Bruce said with a glare towards Logan.

"Both of you!" Pepper said with an exacerbated sigh. "Logan, please. I need to speak with the Professor."

"Figures. He's up in his office," Logan growled again, eyes narrowing on the spot where he seemed to assume Bruce was.

" _Thank you_. Bruce, come with me." Pepper pushed past Logan and wreathed her hand around Bruce's wrist tight, refusing to let it go in case she lost him.

Bruce immediately tried to pull his hand free. "Pepper, _let go_. I can handle following you to visit someone."

"I know. I'm just worried you will go and torment Logan." She made a soft noise in the back of her throat, slowly unwinding her hand from his wrist. "Tony goes out of his way to torment him because he thinks that Logan was hitting on me."

"I don't like him insulting Tony, that's all." Bruce's wings sat slick and tight against his back. "Please, let's just... do whatever you think you need to do here." She knew all of this talk about SHIELD and the priest had him upset, not to mention Logan, who never did play nice.

"Sorry," she said after a few moments, leading the other to where Charles would be waiting. She allowed her knuckles to rap lightly on the door, breathing steadily as she heard another man's voice come from within. There was a pause before she opened the door and they walked inside. Her gaze fell on the man in the wheelchair, deep crow's feet in the edges of his kind eyes as he smiled up at her.

"Pepper Potts, what a pleasant surprise. Who's this you've brought with you?" Charles asked. "Ah, yes, Hank, you remember Pepper, don't you?"

"Of course I do," Hank said with a warm smile while Bruce sucked in a breath beside Pepper. He knew of the mutants, she knew, and found them incredibly interesting on a biological level, but, well, Hank always was a bit of a surprise when people saw him for the first time.

Pepper moved to kiss Hank's cheek lightly. "I'm sorry for canceling our dinner date; you know how Tony is when I make friends," she whispered, then smiled back at Bruce, nodding him forwards.

"...Can you both see me?" Bruce asked cautiously, and Pepper hid the desire to wince as his wings came around him in his natural reaction to shield himself in an uneasy situation.

"We both can, indeed. What is your name, my friend? I am Charles Xavier, and this is Doctor Hank McCoy." Charles's voice remained steady, only meeting Bruce's eyes with a look of amusement.

"...Bruce," Bruce said softly, looking between the two. His brows furrowed together as he looked at Hank uncertainly, then surprised Pepper by saying, "The same Doctor McCoy who wrote the first papers on the X-Gene?"

"The very same," Hank said with a tone of pleasure.

Charles chuckle. "I see we have a fan. Why don't you show Bruce what you were showing me? I'm sure he'll find it just as intriguing."

"If you'll come with me, Bruce?" Hank offered, his tone in agreement with the Professor's. "If you're truly interested, I could show you some of my work. Not every day we have a Fallen interested in the science of genes."

Bruce looked from Hank to Pepper, lifting a brow. "Will you be okay if I go?"

"I'll be fine." She nodded her approval, beaming up at him. "Hank? How about we reschedule that dinner?"

"Will your guardian Angel change our plans?" Hank asked with a faint smile. "If not, I would love to."

"I think I could keep him occupied." Pepper laughed with a wink. "I'll call you with a date?" She didn't miss the look Bruce was giving her, but she wasn't sure if it was confusion or a certain sort of sadness.

"Let me know," Hank said warmly before he looked to Bruce and gestured for him to follow. After a moment, that expression still focused on Pepper, he turned and followed the scientist.

She chewed on her lip, trying to make sense of that look, but had to put it out of her mind. She came on a mission, after all. "Professor," Pepper said finally, eyes flicking back to Charles. "I have some questions."

"Ask away, Pepper," Charles replied with a kind smile. "But only if I'm allowed to ask some in return."

"Of course, you are." She rubbed her forehead and thought over what she wished to ask about. "What do you know about an organization called SHIELD?"

"Not much, I'm afraid, but I do know enough." He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, pinching his brows together and letting out a low ‘hrm' noise. "They seem to want the same thing as we do, my dear," he raised a hand to silence her quickly. "Peace. They go about it in vastly different ways, however. They know how to kill the Demons who try to upset the delicate balance and how to placate the Angels looking to restore it. They work for themselves."

"What about the Fallen?" she asked fiercely. "Why are they placating the Angels instead of working with them if they want to bring about peace?"

"That I don't know, Pepper," Charles replied quietly, reaching out a hand for hers, where he soothed over her knuckles, and smiled. "I've only heard whispers -- Their ‘director' is very good at staying in the shadows, we've only heard the name ‘Fury' when directed at their superior. Did something happen to you?"

"Someone from SHIELD claimed Tony and Bruce are Demons," she said, annoyance roving over her as her fingers drove trails through her hair. "I ended up knocking him out and dragging him to the Tower. It put Bruce on edge, which put Tony on edge and I'm just- I want to understand why they would be considered Demons to anyone."

"Not everyone will see things as you or I do. It's frustrating. You know they're not Demons - I know they're not. What more should it matter?" His tone was soft, calm, but pointed.

"Because they're not Demons!" Pepper snapped back at him. "I don't want SHIELD coming after them thinking they're doing something wrong. You said they kill Demons - what's going to stop them from killing a Fallen as well? Father Coulson believed they were the same things, almost... almost like he believed they were even worse than Demons because they Fell."

Charles nodded, though fell silent, she assumed to gather his thoughts together[a]. "Do you have any way of contacting this Father Coulson? Why not ask for a meeting directly with the director?"

"Because I don't trust these people," Pepper said as she sat down hard in one of the chairs in his office. "I don't know what they'll do and I can't bring Tony or Bruce, obviously."

"Then what, may I ask, are you going to do?" He tilted his head at her while she tapped nervously against the arm of the chair.

"I'm not sure. I was kind of hoping you knew more about this group," she admitted quietly. "Coulson said that everyone in SHIELD could sense Otherworldly Beings, which I guess makes sense if they're going to fight them." She rubbed a hand over her face and felt so _helpless_. It was a feeling she hated nearly as much as Tony did. "On top of that, Tony can't find any mention or sighting of Stane anywhere. That isn't like him. He's smart to cover his tracks but normally he teases Tony and tries to draw him out, but for at least two months now there's been nothing other than Demons who act like little kids on their first time allowed out of their Mom's house. Things are too quiet."

"Things are too quiet," Charles agreed, "but those words are just opening up the door for things to happen."

"The waiting is the worst part," Pepper said unhappily. "I just get the feeling something's going to happen soon and none of us are going to like it."

"I agree," Charles replied with a frown, watching Pepper carefully, blinking as her cellphone went off.

"Give me a moment," she stated, standing to fumble with her cellphone and move towards the door to get a better signal. Her eyes widened when she saw Tony's personal number, heart skipping in her chest as she went to answer it.

"Tony?"

***

"Okay, I'm ready to go!" Tony announced to the lab as he stood up from his work, rubbing his face and frowning when he pulled his hand back and saw black grease smeared. He caught himself in a reflective sheet, making a face at the way his face was greasy and hair matted down. "Well, maybe I could clean up a bit first..."

_"Sir, Ms. Potts and Bruce left over an hour ago."_

"Are you kidding me?" Tony yelled up at the ceiling. "They left me here?!" He glanced down at the small item he had been working on. A nerve made purely of wire and metal. Okay, so they left him there. Not a huge problem. He probably just got way too caught up in his work to even really realize they had left him behind. Wait. There was always one thing he could try -- "Did Bruce go with her?"

_"Indeed he did, sir."_

"Well, fuck," he hissed, scrubbing his face with dirty fingers. "Fuck me sideways and call me Susan." He slammed his fist on a somewhat clean part of the table and sighed.

 _"I don't believe we've done that one yet, sir. Shall I assume that was you just sprouting profanity?"_ the AI responded, and if Tony didn't know better, he would've sworn that o was making fun of him. Well, he probably was but that was completely _beside the point_.

"You are an evil AI, JARVIS. I will dismantle you at the core if you get any more of a sense of humor," Tony snarled, grunting right after. "Shower and then I meet up with them. Where exactly did they go?"

_"The Institute, sir."_

" _Of course_ she'd take Bruce there," he proclaimed with a roll of his eyes. "Maybe I'll meet them for dinner, or have it brought here..." He pulled off his shirt, musing between the two ideas as he came up from his lab towards the living quarters.

When he came around the corner, the last thing he was expecting was to see Stane there, looking like the smug bastard he was. Tony's stomach sank as he saw Stane's twin swords dripping with blood to either side of him, and them even more so as he saw a pair of horns flaring fully from Stane's hairline and a pair of leathery wings that dipped to the ground.

"So, let me guess," Tony grunted, pointing at Stane with one finger. "You go MIA for at least two months and then come out to play the one day Pepper and our friend aren't here. Wow, I feel so loved, and possibly violated. Mostly violated. So, blood, whose is it? Do I get to kill you for killing them too?" He couldn't let Stane know that there was a cold lump of fear settling in his stomach.

"Big words, Stark, big words. I've been busy while you've been playing house with Humans. Now here you are without your pretty little gauntlets, the technology you'll never be able to summon, so all you have are words. As for your ‘friends', I'll deal with them later, but first, you. Don't you just feel honored, Stark?" Stane flicked his wrist, sending a small spray of blood across the floor and up the wall. "Anything _special_ you want done for them? I think I'll take my time with Potts after all she's done to keep my Humans from taking over Stark Industries."

"See here's the thing, Obie," Tony started, shoulders falling back and wings slicked tight against them. "You're not getting out of here alive. You're not going to even touch Pepper because even if you do manage to survive somehow, there will be no place to hide in Heaven, Hell, or anyplace in between. I will hunt you down and make sure you never have a moment's rest."

"Hard to do that when you've died your Final Death," Stane said, unmoved and uncaring. "You know, maybe I'll keep her instead." He gave a cold smirk in Tony's direction and in that instant, Tony _knew_ Stane was trying to rile him up. Damned if it wasn't working, especially when he said lowly, "She'd be a beautiful succubus."

Words, he reminded himself, words were just words. Stane was good with them; they were just as much of a weapon as the bloodstained ones in his hands. His fisted his hands at his sides, glancing up at the ceiling before he forced his attention back onto Stane, wings flexing out to fill the space behind him.

"You're not going to win this, Obie, there is no possible conclusion to this where you come out on top," Tony finally said brashly, eyes narrowing. "You're just a toy to whoever you're bending over for now. That's it, isn't it? You're trying to prove yourself to whoever's dick you're sucking."

"Sticks and stones, Tony," Stane crooned back at him, making Tony's shoulders stiffen. "It burns you to think about her becoming a Demon, doesn't it? How her skin would look so _good_ painted red with someone's blood after she gets off?" He knew what he was saying could become true, and he knew Tony knew it; Stane calculated everything to the smallest of details. "You'd be rolling in your grave, wouldn't you? Knowing that you damned your precious little Human just by _existing in her life_."

But before Tony could say anything in retort, Stane smirked. "But there's another choice. There's an option where you save her from that fate right here, right now - you kneel down in front of me and accept your death at my hand."

His fists balled at his sides, wings rustling as his shoulders shook and he stared directly at Stane. Tony's head reeled with possibilities. He could almost see the ideas that were popping into his head, playing through the scenarios one by one and all of them trying to believe the word of a Demon. Why would he? What good would that bring anyway? He hissed, knees wanting to buckle just at the thought that _Pepper_ would be safe if he just got over himself long enough to allow himself to kneel.

A quickly cobbled together plan came into his mind, one in which he waited until the last minute before striking out at Stane's knees when he went for the heart, ridding him of one of his weapons and stabbing him to death. That could work. Right? Or at least when Stane went back he could make a break for the balcony he could see from the corner of his eye. Right through the glass and out over the edge. He always had been a faster, more nimble flier than Stane. The latter sounded like the better plan. Right.

His plan set in his mind, he offered a smile at the Demon. His fingers began subtly twitching out of nervousness before deep brown eyes dropped to the floor in a gesture of faux submission. "That's it? You just want me to kneel and accept my death, Stane?" he sing-songed. "Well, all right then, down I go." He knew right in that instant, without looking, that Stane was confused as to why he just dropped onto his knees in front of him like he asked. Slowly, so slowly, Stane moved towards him; Tony could hear each footstep.

"I'd say I hope you said your prayers, but we both know better." The tip of a sword found Tony's heart and pressed there. Then in a swift motion, Stane went for the strike as Tony prepared to slam his shoulder into Stane's knee.

But everything went wrong as instead of missing the blade and hitting the knee beyond it, his chest slammed straight into Stane's broad, spread hand and there were five flares of dull, ragged pain at the center of his chest. Tony's eyes shot wide as he felt Stane's fingers encircle the arc reactor. His jaw dropped, worked soundlessly, and his eyes jerked up to look up at Stane whose Cheshire cat grin just leered back at him. "One final golden egg, Tony."

His breath hitched in his throat as the taste of copper filled his mouth. Stane leaned in slowly and just kept grinning that _damn_ grin. "Just because that Human put this in you, did you really think it belonged to you?"

Tony's shoulders sagged and hands gripped uselessly at the floor, mouth hanging open and every breath he took in hurting. He became frozen, seeing Stane's hands slowly begin to pull out the arc reactor. "It's beautiful, Tony. Your ninth symphony and this is going to power a new generation of weapons. All based off of the design you came up with for those gauntlets. It's going to help put the power right back where it belongs, in Demons' hands. I wish you could see my prototype, it's not as fancy as yours yet... but it's going to be beautiful. Did you really think only the Angels took notice of your toys?"

"Pep... Pepper...?" he gasped, mouth barely moving as he whispered her name.

"It's really too bad you involved her, Tony. I really wish I you hadn't, but orders are orders. She's going to need to be killed. I'll make sure it's painless though. I did like her." Stane spread his wings as he stepped back, pulling the arc reactor fully from Tony's chest as he did. "I would have preferred that she lived."

A huge shadow encased Stane, golden at the edges, and with that the Fallen-turned-Demon was gone, leaving Tony with a ragged hole in his chest.

Brown eyes turned to the ceiling, a heaving breath strung out with pain was taken in. "JARVIS," he called, voice weak and stuttery, "call Pepper, please?" He pressed the palm of his hand over the hole where the arc reactor had been, pushing himself up against the wall as he tried to steel himself against the harsh pain radiating from his heart.

_"As you wish, sir."_

It hurt to breathe, but he needed it; he needed to keep breathing to make this phone call. He waited for the tell-tale click and smiled when he heard her voice flutter through the hallway's hidden speakers. "Tony?" She sounded like an Angel wrapped in perfection, voice soft and airy.

"Hey Pep," he managed, keeping the pain from filtering through his voice. "Is Bruce around? I gotta talk to him."

"What's wrong, Tony? You don't-- Bruce just got in, let me hand the phone over to him. Promise me you didn't blow something up first though."

 _Only my life, Pepper_ , his mind answered for him. "I promise," a wry chuckle left him. "I didn't, nn, blow up anything."

He could hear her worried noise as she passed the phone off to Bruce anyway; it still soothed him when he heard Bruce's quiet, "Tony?"

"Hey, I am, nnn." He coughed, hand squeezing over the hole in his chest, wheezing hard. "Don't come home, keep, ow, _fuck_ , keep Pepper away. Don't worry about me, okay? JARVIS, cut the line now."

"Tony? Ton--!"

He let his eyes drift shut and gave a wet laugh, rubbing the back of his hand against his mouth, smearing the golden blood that pooled at the corners. He wished he could apologize to them, tell them he was so sorry for doing this, for dying on them, but something told him that Pepper would be okay. That Bruce could protect her better than he could.

Pepper would make sure Bruce was fine, too. Pepper, special little Pepper, taking care of him even when he Fell. When the man who helped him make the arc reactor died because of him and he couldn't think of anywhere to go but the Tower. When he crawled into her bed and she screamed at him.

He really fucking loved her.


	8. Chapter 8

"Stark!" It came from far away, like hearing his name through the dark water he was sinking into. "Stark!" Sinking deeper, but somewhere beyond his eyelids, there was a faint light. He could remember the white light once, could remember laughing in his head at the fact the metaphorical ‘light at the end of the tunnel' actually existed and wondering if there would be women or judgment waiting for him. This time though, he didn't want to go towards it; they had cast him back down to Earth expecting him to die.

The voice that called his name was so familiar, something wanted, _Yinsen_. Someone he was supposed to protect and failed to. He shuddered and coasted just under the surface of that infinite water. He had always wondered if he'd ever see the man's face again - probably not, but he'd _hoped_. "Stark!" The voice called again, insistent and hurried, ordering him to open his eyes. He could see Yinsen again, that warm, dry smile; all he needed to do was open his eyes.

"Stark, wake your sorry ass up."

That was definitely _not_ Yinsen's voice.

He snapped his eyes open, wide and alarmed, to look up at a completely different friend's face. "Rhodey?" he rasped from a dry throat, staring almost unseeingly at the other's face. "Is that...?"

"You are such a helpless dumbass. Your Human friend has her hands full with you," Rhodes admonished, patting him on the head. Tony blinked, staring up at the white wings that lingered behind the Angel's shoulders. "I shouldn't even be doing this. You're going to drive me to drink, you know that right?"

"Join the Fallen Club, we have T-shirts," Tony shot back weakly, finally reaching to his chest to figure out why the hell he wasn't dead yet.

Fingertips reached the metal circle that led deep into his chest; Tony blinked when he hit glass. "So, want to tell me--"

"It's a present from a mutual friend."

"You are incorrigible, Rhodey."

"I could take it back out, you know," Rhodes said pointedly, giving Tony a long look. "They favor those who kill Fallen, if I remember correctly."

"No, mine," Tony shot back, protectively covering the present and scowling up at Rhodes. "You are a huge bag of dicks and this is mine, you can't have it."

"You are a drama queen, Stark," Rhodes muttered, poking Tony in the middle of his forehead and laughing quietly when he let his head hit the wall again. "You gonna tell me what happened? All of a sudden Yinsen comes running in on me, shoving that thing into my hands telling me I'm the only Angel he trusts to deliver it. Then I find you here dying on the floor - mind you, I have no idea how to install this thing in your chest but since you're still alive, I'll assume it worked."

"Uh, let's see," Tony said, checking the arc reactor. "Fuck, it tastes like coconuts," he licked his lips right after, making Rhodes' eyebrow rise at the sight. "Okay, look, Stane decided to take the one in my chest. In an attempt to kill me, right after he promised to keep Pepper alive. He lied; don't make that face." The Angel still looked extremely unimpressed with Tony's bargain. "Seriously, stop that. Rude, so very rude. And yes, I know - ‘ _Tony, you're not supposed to bargain with Demons! They're bad guys!_ '."

"I'm not saying a damned thing, Stark, I just trust you to, you know, not die because your heart grew three sizes."

"Cardiomegaly is a _serious_ problem, Rhodey. You know, when your heart grows-"

" _Continue_ , Tony."

"What else do I have to say? I'm not dead, awesome. Now I just have to go kill Stane before he gets to Pep and Bruce."

"...Now you have _two_ Humans?" Rhodes shook his head as he looked over his friend. "Look, Tony, you're half-dead and with that thing in your chest, we know your healing is messed up. You can't protect them like this."

"And now you're here to help me," Tony shot back, eyebrow raising, purposely ignoring the comment on two Humans. "Your first order of business is to help me the fuck up and get me to where my gauntlets are. By the way, have you gained weight? You look like you've gained weight."

"I should leave you here for that." But Rhodes hauled Tony up, putting his arm over his shoulders and clearly ignoring Tony's pained sounds. "I could throw you over my shoulder like a sack instead of letting you walk like a man, you know, if you're going to keep complaining."

"I'm sorry, what was that? You're going to make a man who almost died a second time -" He cut himself off as they came around the corner. There before them a dark portal came to life, blowing not with the heat and fire that people believed of Hell but a frozen, icy wind that howled with snow. Tony's eyes widened as from the portal, Stane walked out slowly clapping his hands together with two massive Demons flanking him. Just behind them, just before the portal shut, Tony thought he saw a flash of green eyes and a flare of gold along a horned helm.

"Now, my ducks are all lined in a row, aren't they?"

"Rhodey?" Tony asked, tilting his head towards the dark-skinned Angel.

"Yeah, Tony?"

"On a scale of one to fuck-me-sideways, how do you feel about trashing those Demons and leaving me to deal with Stane?"

"A solid ‘ _You're batshit, but okay_ '. It's nestled right between ‘ _Oh, hell no_ ' and ‘ _Let's go kill these jackasses_.'"

"See, that's what I _thought_ , but it's better to ask."

"Go get those damn gauntlets of yours," Rhodes said as light gathered between his hands. It burst out like shattering glass and in his palms was a massive bastard sword that he held tight. When the sword was summoned, Rhodes smirked towards Stane and the Demons. "Hello again, _Stane_." The name was spat with as much dishonor as Tony had ever heard Rhodes utter.

Stane just smiled at Rhodey, shaking his head and snapping his fingers before pointing at Tony. "Make sure he doesn't get too far, will you? I got to make sure this one understands his place even after all this time."

The Demons loomed, inching around Stane while their wings spread and batted, sending gusts of air towards Tony. He could smell the brimstone that coated their bodies, the stench hitting him in thick waves. He almost gagged as he forced himself to push off of Rhodes. "They're in the lab -- I'm pretty screwed."

"Tony, this is why we take a simple weapon," Stane chimed lazily, hands spreading as shadows spun and his own weapons formed in his hands. "Easier to grow an attachment to. You just hop from machine to machine, never forming a deep-set love for them. It's kinda sad actually, though it does make it easier on me."

Suddenly the two Demons charged for him but Rhodes was there to intercept, a set of claws ringing off his blade before he turned and sliced for the second. The Demons clearly weren't the brightest because Stane's order was forgotten as they turned on the one actively attacking them, but Stane didn't look bothered at all. He just moved forward with his swords in hand, shadows wrapping around him in spirals and spreading out across the hallway.

Tony only _blinked_ and Stane was there, flying out of the shadows. He dodged down, coming up with a hard kick at Stane's knee. Stane had the power, and the weaponry, but he was fast. He just had to keep Stane at bay long enough to get down into the lab and get his gauntlets. _I'm boned_.

Clenching his fingers tight, he breathed in. _Please, please, please, come to me. I could use you like, right now!_ he pleaded mentally, though he yelped as Stane shoved him flat against the wall, a low laugh rumbling from the other as he went in for the strike. He reacted, hands reaching out to grab one of the swords as he closed his eyes; he didn't want to see the blood when his hand got sliced open. Instead of pain and blood though, all he felt was a _thud_ and heard a metallic ring. He opened his eyes, blinking at the red-and-yellow glow still hovering around his arm where a very familiar gauntlet sat encasing his flesh. "Well, _that's_ new," he breathed, looking past his upraised arm and the sword against it to Stane's startled face.

Then Stane snarled, expression going from the suave smile he normally saw to something as dark and twisted as the Demon he had become. He brought up his second sword to break the counter, giving Tony just barely enough time to charge up the shield on his other arm and keep the next sweeping strike from cleaving his arm off.

"Someone's getting cranky," Tony murmured to himself, shoving Obadiah off of him, scowling back at the snarling Demon. "You should really know better by now, Stane," he finally stated, knowing that his next words had to have some sort of substance or it'd all go to hell. "Don't back me into a corner, by the way, you're not going to survive this--"

Tony stopped when he heard a loud crash of glass and a familiar roar coming from the bedroom. Carefully he started edging away from the wall as Stane looked sharply towards the noise. "You pissed off a friend of mine. You remember him? Big, green, angry? He's going to chew your head off, by the way. Hurting his friend and all."

The door of the bedroom flung open hard enough to shatter the drywall as the Hulk rushed through it, shoulder-charging Stane right into the opposite wall. Tony jerked back, the steadying flare of his wings kicking up more drywall until it looked like a blizzard in the hall. The Hulk looked back at Tony, taking in the dried blood on Tony's pale figure with those knowing eyes before letting out another roar. Tony thought it was one of triumph but as the Hulk staggered back, he saw one of the butterfly swords hanging from between the Hulk's ribs.

Tony's jaw dropped as his chest heaved and ached in sympathy for the Hulk's wounds. He jumped Stane in a moment of rage, shaking with it as his vision shot through crimson. As they tumbled to the ground, he already knew this was a terrible idea but to hell with it. He splayed his hand inches over Stane's heart, the repulsor powering up. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you right now, Stane," he hissed, sparing one final glance at the Hulk as the Demon tore the sword from his ribs.

"I got one for you Tony - look to your left," Stane replied nonchalantly just as Tony looked up and was sent through the hallway wall via an inhuman-strength Demon kick to the teeth. "That good enough of a reason?"

He really needed to stop getting his ass kicked like this because, ow. Everything hurt as Tony started to get up, spitting drywall dust. "Always the comedian," Tony snapped, but when he looked up, one of the two brutes that had come through the portal with Stane was grinning down at him. "Shit."

"Hey! Get away from him!"

Tony's head jerked up, eyes frighteningly large with fear as they settled upon the redhead with her own fierce look. Pepper was holding her own weapon, one he had never seen before, but he could make out a faint golden glow around it. Stane caught sight of her and smiled at the woman.

"Pepper," Stane started, approaching her, "how nice of you to join us."

" _NO_!" Tony roared, trying to run for Pepper, but the brute got between them. He fired off a shot but the Demon took it better than he would have hoped. It staggered back, clutching his bleeding chest, roaring a challenge at Tony before running straight for him. Damn, it didn't get the heart. He twisted to dodge the rush but the Demon grabbed his ankle at the last second, jerking him down hard to the floor. He heard a huge crash in a nearby room and knew Rhodes had to be getting the bad end of the other brute, and Pepper screamed before there was a _thud_ followed by a groan of pain from Stane.

Knowing Bruce was protecting Pepper let him flare out his wings and twist his upper body to fire off another shot as the Demon started dragging him upward by the ankle. He blew off several toes of a clawed foot, but instead of being dropped like he thought, Tony was slammed into the wall, _through_ the wall. Immediately his vision flashed white with blue spots as his head rang from the blow, vision swimming after the white faded. Needed to kill this brute, needed to get after Stane, needed to protect Pepper. He pulled his legs up under him just as the Demon swiped at him, barely ducking under the clawed hand. He rolled, felt his stomach churn with the changing perspective, and brought his wrist up. As the Demon came running for him, he narrowed his eyes against the pain in his head and lined up his shot.

The Demon's scream of pain rang in his ears, so loud he could feel it vibrating the arc reactor, but he saw the brute clutching at his chest, blood gushing from the second shot that had hit dead on the first, enough to penetrate the thick, leathery hide and go right for the heart. Tony clutched at his wrist to stabilize his last shot, blood smeared on his teeth as he showed them in a half-grin, half-grimace and said thickly, "And this one is for putting me through a wall," before he fired.

The Demon went down hard, black blood pooling on the floor as it thrashed in its death throes. Tony let out a painful breath and stood up, stumbling as he tried to run towards where he could hear the Hulk's fighting. He caught sight of Rhodes for a split second through what was once a doorway and tried to take a pot shot on the Demon that followed after, but he could tell his timing and accuracy was off from the ringing pain in his head.

He ran down the hall and there they were, standing lined up. Pepper was behind the Hulk's spread wings, her brow split but otherwise, from a quick glance, unharmed. The Hulk was facing down not only Stane but another of those portals where glowing eyes peered out, ready to attack. Just what was Stane ready to do?!

Pepper looked back as he came up and he could see her swallow. "He's threatening to unleash more Demons, Tony," she whispered to him.

"Good of you to join us, Stark," Stane said with all his usual swagger, but Tony thought he could hear a tightness that hadn't been there before. There were bloodstains on Stane's clothing and Tony felt a certain vindication in knowing the Hulk had been doing damage.

"I don't particularly like these kinds of parties," Tony snapped, chin jutting up defiantly, "but I'm ready to dance if you are, Stane."

"I don't see how this is a party," Pepper muttered.

Stane sneered towards Tony, specks of blood flinging from his lips as he spoke. Maybe the Hulk had done more damage than Tony expected. _Good_. "Do you really think you'll win? I have an army waiting to come through this portal and take the city that they've been promised!"

"We have a _Hulk_ ," Tony shot back, gesturing towards the Demon, who roared in response. But before Stane could respond, Tony kept going. "See, you know what I just realized? You think you're this Bishop, sitting next in line for the throne. Yet, the fact is, you're nothing but a pawn, riding off of waves of an idea you didn't even come up with. Sure, you gave them this great piece of stolen technology, but the moment you finish giving them everything you've stolen, they'll sacrifice you to make the next move. Because every piece on the chessboard is important, but the first piece gone is usually a pawn and that just burns you up, doesn't it, Stane? Knowing that when your usefulness is done, even after being the most loyal you can be, you're going to be left for dead and someone else is going to take your place because everything that makes you special, really just came from me."

Tony didn't have time to gloat because two things happened at once - Stane roared, running for Tony with the short, broad butterfly swords gripped hard in either hand, and the portal flashed open and Demons started pouring through. The Hulk charged forward and slammed into the wave of Demons, holding them back from getting any further than the portal itself. Tony struggled to get his body to listen to him, to bring his arm up and fire off another repulsor round as he watched his death coming straight for him. The blow to his head from earlier had left him disoriented, the world blurry all around him, and Stane seemed twice as big as before, as the image of him distorted even as Tony stared.

Then, in a single flash of light, Stane stopped. He tried to turn even as his hand came up to his chest, grasping weakly for the end of a blade protruding from his skin above his heart. His lips parted to speak, but instead a gush of black blood dribbled down from his lips. Behind the flared wings, Tony could see Pepper with her hands wrapped around the hilt of the sword, leaning with all of her weight into the thrust she had put through Stane. She looked achingly beautiful like that, with all her anger and fierceness in her face.

Pepper peered out from around Stane, jostling the blade and earning a ragged gasp of pain from the Demon, and called out, "Help!"

The Hulk turned and, studied what was happening, reached out with a mammoth hand to wrap around the protruding blade, jerking it upward. Down. Right. Left. Just as he finished, there was a brilliant flare of warm white light from where the blade had dissected Stane's heart, one that made the Hulk roar in pain and Tony look away as it became too bright. He heard a second roar, one that rang in the room and beyond, and felt a pressure that seemed to judge him to the very depths of his core.

Then all at once, it was gone.

Tony blinked away the spots from his vision and cautiously looked back, but there stood Pepper covered in dust and blood and looking shocked, and on the ground was Bruce. What once had been ragged black wings now covered him in graceful arcs, fully feathered with beautiful grey-green feathers that shone with their own light. Tony caught Pepper's expression out of the corner of his eye as she looked at Bruce, an expression of confusion and awe, and knew something had changed. Something _big_.

 _Slowly_ , he told himself, _move slowly towards them_. His feet felt like lead as he stumbled forwards into Pepper's arms. She helped lower him down beside Bruce. He could bet he looked like death as he wrapped his arms and wings half-assedly around the Angel. "Congrats on the new wings," Tony whispered against Bruce's temple, dotting a light kiss to it before he reached up for Pepper and moved to kiss her hard. "I fucking love you," he hissed against her mouth, grin fierce as she palmed his face hard in an attempt to shove him away with a tired laugh.

"Not now, Byronic hero," she murmured, dropping finally to curl up next to Bruce and gently stroke his wings. "They're beautiful," she whispered, taking great care to rove her fingers over the feathers.

Bruce gave a faint groan where he laid on the floor, trying to turn over as he came out of unconsciousness but clearly exhausted to the core. One wing gave a confused flap, then he looked to either side at Tony and Pepper. "...What... what happened?" He touched Tony's face so gently and when his hand came back, there was golden blood. Bruce looked around the hallway, then a light of realization came back to his eyes. "Stane." And sharply back at Tony. "Are you alright?"

"Could be worse," Tony replied with a quirk of his lips as he pulled lightly at the remains of his ruined, bloody shirt. As if Stane's little power play with the arc reactor hadn't been enough to ruin his favorite tee shirt, the fight had done the rest. He'd find another one.

He reached back out, hand snatching Bruce's wrist with a loose grip. "And for your first question... _Stane_ , that's really what just happened." He brought the hand back to his face, rubbing his cheek affectionately against it, ignoring Pepper's eyebrow raise and soft titters at the profound affection that he was showing the hand.

"Don't worry," Pepper started, her own hand locking fingers with Bruce's. "He does this." She leaned closer as if to impart some secret to the grey-winged Fallen. "It means you're ours. And we're yours."

"Pepper," Tony hissed, "don't give away all my secrets."

"You don't have secrets from us," Bruce said thickly as he sat up, looking between the two. His expression was difficult to read, but most of all Tony thought he saw awe in Bruce's eyes. "...He's dead? For sure?" There was pure quiet protection in Bruce's tone.

"As a goddamned doornail," Tony answered without skipping a beat, knowing his own tone mirrored Bruce's and that it was over. Stane was dead. "Your Otherside helped. Pepper and him saved the day." His scruff scraped against the worn palm and eyes glittered lightly with amusement. "Can I just mention that you sure got some gorgeous wings now? Huge improvement over the black ones. I think this earned you them. Pepper's treating you like a bird now. Just so we're clear."

"I what?" Bruce flexed a wing forward and stared in confusion and shock at the long, graceful feathers. "But... why... how?" He looked to Tony and Pepper as if they could explain everything.

"Who is this guy?" came Rhodes' voice through the hole in the wall as the Angel stepped forward covered in blood and dirt and obviously exhausted, but Tony could see his wounds were already healed.

"My boyfriend," Tony replied without missing a beat, causing Rhodes' face to twitch and brow to raise. "Not really, but this is Bruce. You know, the guy I mentioned earlier?"

"He was the big guy, wasn't he? You need to stop collecting people." Rhodes grunted, pinching the bridge of his nose with one hand and gesturing with the other for Tony to continue on.

"He's complicated," Tony muttered to Bruce with a snicker. "Okay, look. Bruce here had black wings until the bastard was killed. Explain why this happened. Speak slowly so Pepper can understand-- ow!"

"You're going to stop that right now, Tony," Pepper grumbled before she looked to Rhodes curiously. "Are you going to introduce me? ...He's a real Angel, isn't he? Not another Fallen?" Tony had some very mixed emotions about the quiet awe he heard in Pepper's voice.

"Pepper, meet James Rhodes, also known as Rhodey." Tony's eyes narrowed as Rhodes moved forward and as Pepper extended her hand to shake his, bent down to kiss the back of it.

"Pleasure to meet you, ma'am." The Angel seemed to charm Pepper right out of her socks if the smile that came to her lips was anything to speak of, making Tony growl and rub his cheek on Bruce's hand once again.

"As I was saying - wings. You explain why his wings changed, like right now," Tony growled.

"Relax there, tiger," Rhodes said with a little smirk, stepping back from Pepper and looking to Bruce. "I'm not entirely sure, but if I had to take a guess, he's taken his first step on the road to Redemption. The green isn't exactly normal though."

"Nothing about me has been normal since I died," Bruce grumbled, but as he stroked one of the newborn feathers, a smile crept onto his lips.

"Redemption?" Tony asked with a small smile. Right at that moment, he wasn't sure what he felt about it. "That's .... good, really good."

Except Bruce looked to Rhodes and said quietly, "What if I don't want Redemption? Heaven didn't want me to begin with. God never saved my people from rape and slaughter. I don't want to follow Lucifer's hand either, but why, after all I've done and dealt with, _now_?"

There was a full moment where Tony just blinked, the words driving him wide-eyed and slack-jawed before tilting his head back towards Pepper who simply patted his arm and mouthed, _I gave you the CliffsNotes, remember_? Mouth rounding into an O, Tony thought back to the short conversation he'd had with Pepper a few days before about Bruce's past. He then nodded and turned his attention back to Rhodes.

"I'm not sure," Rhodes replied with a shrug. "I'm not the one really privy to that kinda stuff. You'd need to talk to a higher Angel. Uh, well... there's one around too, he was sent down a few months ago to talk to a priest about a Demon. Find him and I bet you could ask him."

Pepper gave a wide-eyed look to Tony at that, and at first Tony couldn't pick up why. He thought about why that sounded oddly familiar... Then it struck him hard and he looked sharply back at Pepper. _Coulson_ , he mouthed back at her.

"Does this Angel have a name? What does he look like? How do we _find_ someone like that?" Bruce frowned slightly.

"Steven," Rhodes answered with a slight shrug, though Tony was wont to admit that Rhodes looked almost unsure about them finding the Angel at all.

Pepper's brow was high and she mouthed back a quick, _Are you sure_?

 _You told me Coulson mentioned talking to a Demon, right_? Tony mouthed back, then just grabbed Pepper and pulled her close enough to repeat it in a whisper against her ear. "If that's the case, then if we find Coulson again maybe we've got a shot at finding this Angel Bruce is gonna look for. You _know_ he's going to look for Steven if it means answers."

"You think he'll come with me?" she muttered, pushing her mouth against his ear to make it seem affectionate.

"I do," he replied, though he kept a hand wreathed around Bruce's hand. "Bruce? Thank you." Tony finally said aloud to the other Fallen, tugging him up and close to them. "I mean that. You've done a ridiculous amount of things for me and you protected Pepper--"

"Are you going to make me leave?" Bruce asked very softly, cutting off Tony mid-sentence. "Because of this?" A grey wing flicked out then folded back again.

"What!? _No_!" Tony yelped out, dragging him into a hug. "Why would we ever do that? Goddamnit, you're a part of us. You made me and Pepper... bigger, big enough to fit you, and now you're stuck with us." He made another noise from the back of his throat. "Do you honestly think that I'd kick you out? Wow, that shows how much faith you have in this Byronic hero, huh?"

"Look at that, Tony's finally realizing his part," Pepper said with a little laugh. "What Tony means is that we meant it when we said you're welcome to stay with us. ...forever."

"Forever?" Bruce said uncertainly, looking back and forth between them. Tony didn't miss Rhodes' raised eyebrow but couldn't tell if it was of approval or not. "I don't know what forever entails, and frankly, neither do you but... I don't want to leave here or either of you."

"There's no such thing as forever," Tony added unhelpfully, before grinning at Bruce and nodding at Pepper. "But we're glad to have you with us. For as long as we can. Or you can, not sure. Whatever, doesn't really matter," he commented with a lift and lowering of his shoulders before slowly withdrawing himself from the pair and moving towards Rhodes, wasting zero time in hugging him hard. "Thanks, tell Yinsen thanks too. Also pass that hug on. Tell him I'll put his gift to good use, all right?"

"Are you kicking _me_ out, Stark?" Rhodes asked, eyebrow raised, though he was clearly amused by the situation.

"Well, no shit. Get outta my tower," Tony winked and clapped his friend on the back. He could hear Bruce questioning Pepper about who Yinsen was behind him.

"You owe me so bad," Rhodes retorted with a fond grin. And there was Pepper's quiet response that she would explain later.

"I'll make you a cheese steak next time you're wandering around on earth."

"Bullshit, you'll make me three."

"Needy bastard."

"I'll never top you in the needy department," Rhodes commented with a pointed look towards the Fallen and Human Tony had collected in his afterlife.

"My eyes are right here, Rhodey," Tony snottily pointed to his eyes, brows high on his forehead. "It's rude not to look me in the eye."

"Don't make me hand you something," Rhodes snorted back. "I've got better things to do instead of being someone's messenger boy." He turned to leave, then leaned over to Tony. "Hang onto them. I think Stane's just the beginning."

Something in Rhodes' eyes suggested the warning was serious and probably something he shouldn't have said at all to a Fallen; it sent a cold shudder down Tony's spine as he watched his friend leave. He looked back to Bruce and Pepper just as Bruce was getting up, curling those new wings around him in a way that made Tony want to reach out and stroke them.

Maybe later. Right now? "We all need a bath, Pepper you need to get checked by medical and get a repair crew here by tomorrow afternoon, good luck explaining this, and Bruce--"

"We need a bath, Tony. That's all we need to worry about. Pepper isn't hurt." Bruce's tone was soft, as was the smile on his lips. "Right, Pepper?"

"I'm fine," she reaffirmed, though Tony wasn't convinced.

"At least go and make an appointment with someone," Tony said with a small frown, reaching out for her shoulders and squeezing them lightly. "For my peace of mind?"

"Only if you take a shower, you smell like drywall."

"I was shoved through five or six different walls, Pepper, I'm going to smell like drywall."

"...I'm going to take a bath," Bruce said quietly, turning away from the pair. "If you'll excuse me..."

"Wait a second, Doctor Bruce, I need to make an appointment with you!" Pepper said playfully, clearly teasing Tony.

Tony huffed before he looked sharply at Pepper. "I'm watching you," he said to her, pointing to his eyes then at hers before he went after Bruce.

He slid an arm over Bruce's shoulders, smirking. "Okay, Bruce, you got new wings. Do you want to shower alone or are you comfortable enough with me to let me just share a shower with you? Because this floor's bathroom is probably toast. My penthouse one should be good though. It's huge, and awesome, and I don't really wanna be alone? I guess, who knows, I sure as hell don't."

"What?" Bruce looked at Tony with wide eyes at that. "Why would we share a shower?!"

"Water? It's big enough?" He tilted his head. "I could get your back if you want."

"Tony..." Bruce let out a breath. "I've never..." His look to Tony was flavoured with red cheeks and sheer embarrassment.

"Been willingly naked in company of another person? That's okay, we can fix that." Tony grinned even more, enjoying the endearing red cheeks and shyness that seemed to radiate off of Bruce. "It's easy to fix. I can wear a towel or something around my waist if you want."

"I've been naked in front of people unintentionally many times. Tony, I'm naked _right now_." Bruce's blush only got worse as his wings stayed curled around himself. "This is... different."

"What? Really? Oh. _Oh_?" Tony's brows rose high and he paused just a step so he would get a look at Bruce's backside then grinned. "Nah, not different at all. I'll just be joining you in being naked. And come out of your shell Bruce, I've seen it all before. Nothing to be embarrassed about."

"I'm not embarrassed!" Bruce bapped Tony in the face with a wing and started off to the elevator. Tony spat out in shock from feathers in his mouth and ran after--

Just in time to see Bruce hit the button for the penthouse floor as he stumbled into the elevator.

He grinned at Bruce and tilted his head. "Then what? I am not getting the problem here. And as much as I like your new wings, I did not want to taste them so soon. That's rude, how'd you like it if I..." Tony moved a wing to hit Bruce in the face lightly, careful to use the wing that wasn't half metal.

Bruce just gave him a dry, long look and spat out a bit of feather. When the elevator doors opened he stepped out, one wing now in front and one behind. "I should just steal your shower, you know."

"You did it first! You did it repeatedly, if I can remind you. I'm allowed doing it just once," Tony shot back, grinning and moving ahead of Bruce, already starting to strip. "So, what's your problem? What makes this so different?"

"Because of what is going through _your_ mind, Tony." Bruce looked back and Tony caught his frozen gaze of shock before Bruce's head jerked back so he was looking out the window. "You're a terrible pervert."

"Wait, what?!" Tony's mouth hung wide open and he stared at Bruce. "You know, I wasn't even thinking of that," Tony admitted quietly, as he snapped his jaw shut and shrugged. "But clearly you were. So tell me, Bruce, why would it be that I wasn't thinking like that and you were?"

 _WHAP_. He probably should have expected the wing to the face. "That? That is proof right there that your mind is completely per--"

"Me thinks the Fallen doth protest too much," Tony interrupted before invading Bruce's personal bubble, getting behind his wing-shield and grabbing Bruce's face in his hands before smiling faintly at him. "You know I meant it when I said that you made a Pepper-And-Me-Shaped-Thing better right? It really does fit you now. Nice and perfectly. So, don't run off after I do," Tony leaned in slowly, sealing their lips together with a soft sigh of pleasure coming from him. _This_.

Bruce tensed beneath his hands, letting out a hot breath from the nostrils. His hands came up to Tony's chest, fingers splaying there against skin. Yet they didn't push away, only stayed there, keeping space between them. He kissed the other a bit harder, body pressing closer for only a few seconds before he began to pull back. He could feel Bruce's fingers flexing against his skin and sucked in his own breath of air through his nose.

"No running?" He asked softly, his head tilting as his thumb brushed against Bruce's cheek and he gave a quiet chuckle, his nose bumping against Bruce's.

"...No running," Bruce said very softly, leaning in against Tony. Then he quirked a tiny smile. "No wing smacking either."

Tony returned the smile, crow's feet in the corner of his eyes as he just leaned in for one more kiss. "Pepper didn't get here first, right?" he asked after a moment of their lips pressed together.

"No. She got in my head first but... not to my mouth." Bruce laughed softly, the hand on Tony's chest slowly moving around to hold Tony closer to him. "You've got me physically, somehow. I don't know how... but somehow." He laid his forehead on Tony's shoulder, breathing out in a long, steady breath.

"Good," he said, his wings began flickering back and forth, showing off how pleased he was with this. "Really good." He smiled again, before both wings shifted forward to brush against Bruce's. Tony allowed one arm to wrap around his waist and tug him forwards to hug him tight.

It hit him hard, the subtle tang of coconut still on his tongue, and he could see the new slightly different shade of blue spread across Bruce's skin. "Stane stole the arc reactor," Tony blurted out, alarmed as he locked gazes with Bruce. "I completely forgot."

"The arc--" Bruce's eyes went wide and he stepped back, pushing at the remains of Tony's shirt and staring at the dried blood that was smeared across his chest in golden streaks. He thumbed across the surface of the arc reactor, frowning hard. "It's... different. Wait, how is it here if he stole it?"

"If I had known that was the fastest way to get you to get me naked, I'd have mentioned it sooner," Tony murmured under his breath. He then covered up his bad humor with a small shrug and nod. "Yinsen made me a new one," he smiled a bit, looking off to the side with a bit of a laugh.

"Yinsen was the first Human I came upon when I Fell," he explained, reaching up for the hand pressed against the arc reactor and holding it there. "He died for me. Stane found me- _us_ \- a few weeks after we finished the prototypes of the gauntlets I'm using now. He tossed himself into the line of fire and was killed. I got away. You know the whole me going into Pepper's bedroom and falling asleep and her screaming right after and stuff. So. Yeah. Pepper knows bits and pieces -- but she can't know about the arc reactor being stolen right now. That's going to set her off in all the bad ways."

"Are you okay?" Bruce asked quietly, fingers brushing off some of the blood and moving to the edge of the reactor. It was still raw there, healing slowly, so even the slightest brushes had him half-whimpering in a bit of pain. Tony reached up and gripped Bruce's wrist to stop him from exploring further. "How much longer will it take to heal at your rate?"

"Two or three hours," Tony murmured, head bowing forwards and gripping the wrist a bit tighter, though he didn't pull the hand away. "You'll take good care of me in the shower, right?" he added, looking at Bruce with a slight smirk and a definite wink.

He felt like there was some sort of importance right in that moment, where he held onto Bruce's wrist, felt the stronger heart pumping the blood through the Fallen's body where his own damaged one just thudded lamely, trying to speed up its healing. Tony released the hand, suddenly, dragging Bruce back in and kissing him hard.

"Promise me if that if something happens to me, you'll take care of Pepper no matter what," he muttered. "And if something ever comes after me again and I tell you to keep Pepper away," he could see Bruce's face already falling with whatever he thought Tony was going to say. "That you'll do the right thing and make the right judgment call. One of us has to."

"I made that call already once, Tony," Bruce said softly. "It brought us back here to you and saved your life, and I'd make it again." He tapped a single finger on the arc reactor. "In a heartbeat."

"That's good," he said quietly with a laugh, then leaned in to lightly kiss his cheek once more. "Now, how about that shower?"

Tony didn't think he ever wanted much from other people. Not like this, not from anyone he had known when he was alive. He could remember being alone almost always, surrounded by a crowd of people who claimed to be his peers and didn't match up, people who wanted to linger around him but never really wanted to know him. Yet, now here he was, surrounded by the only two people who he needed, both in one home. They gave him separate things, fed into different parts of his personality, asked different but similar things of him -- and that was fine.

If someone had asked him when he was in Heaven if he knew that Falling would be the thing that brought him so much, that maybe the Lord's plan wasn't finished -- he probably would've laughed at them. He thought the Lord's plan stopped for him the moment he died, when he had stopped finally fighting and accepted that white light at the end of the tunnel. Now he wasn't so sure, not with the way Bruce and Pepper acted around him, not when he fought to bring the three of them together once he knew they were the things he needed in his life.

He never did like things just handed to him.

***

Bruce pulled the pillow to his chest as he looked out over the skyline of New York City. It was beautiful at night, making up for the stars stolen from the sky by offering up a million lights of its own. A city never truly slept, only rested until dawn when it came fully aware again and began the next day in its existence. Humans acted the same way, going about their lives with each day passing into the next until it blurred in their memories. Only a few actually looked beyond and made something of those lives, burning with an inner fire that made them shine.

He barely heard the soft padding of Pepper's bare feet on the floor towards him, only turning to look at her when she sat on the edge of the bed and offered him a cup of tea. He took it with a soft _thank you_ and blew across the hot surface. His wing flexed out and laid across her back in something like a feathery hug, encouraging her to draw closer. Behind them, Tony snorted in his sleep as he rolled over to his other side with a few flicks of his wings to unconsciously settle them smooth against his back in this new position.

Bruce chewed on the edge of his lip to hide his smile and looked to Pepper, taking in that soft glow that came from the dim lighting overhead and the moonlight flitting in through the windowpanes. It caught in the ends of her hair and reflected back with little hints of orange and red, made her eyes shine. "You look beautiful tonight," he said softly to her as he slid his hand across hers, cradling his teacup in his other hand and watching the steam rise from hers.

He watched her lift her own mug to her lips and take a small sip, casting a small smile towards him with a shake of loose red hair going every which way. The simplistic folds of her t-shirt and the heavy fleece of her pants made Pepper look more fragile in the soft light while she rubbed her thumb against his knuckles in reply. "You're even more so," she murmured, her voice showing the tiredness from the day that had just finished. She cast a look back at Bruce, squeezing his hand tight. "All for one and one for all," she muttered. "United we stand, divided we fall."

" _The Three Musketeers_ ," Bruce couldn't stop himself from hiding the smile at this point. Though his voice was as soft as her own. "How appropriate."

"I thought so too," she said with a shake of her head.

"You know what tonight is?" he asked her, lifting a brow in her direction before glancing towards the clock at Tony's bedside. "Well, what it will be in a few minutes?"

"Sadly, I think all of my brain power has been used up," she answered with a tired smile. "Take pity on the poor Human, will you?"

"There is nothing _poor_ about you, Ms. CEO," Bruce tutted matter-of-factly. "...It'll be ten months since we met." He gave a little shrug, trying to play off what it meant to him. It wasn't something he wanted to make any sort of big deal out of but... he remembered. He would never forget.

"Has it really been that long?" Pepper asked, wracking her mind for something visibly, before she released his hand. "Wake up Tony," she whispered at Tony and moved to stand. "I'll be right back."

"What? Pepper, no-" Bruce said, waving his hand. "I didn't want you to-"

"Mmm?" came the sleepy sound from Tony, making Bruce groan.

"--wake Tony up..." Bruce finished with a sigh.

"Shush, this will be worth it," she replied, almost running from the room in her sudden hurry.

Tony reached out and groped at a green-grey wing with a small sleep-addled snort, before he began bundling himself up sleepily under the blanket with a small huff of air through his nose. Bruce pinched his brows and gave a quiet laugh to himself at the insanity of the sleepy Fallen who was becoming a cocoon. Carefully, he reached out to pet the wild brown hair that poked out from the blanket's safe barrier and smiled.

Pepper came back into the room with a gleeful jump in her step, moving back to him to drop a yellow-and-red box onto his lap. "I had this programmed into my phone," she started. "I bought this just after Christmas, after seeing your eyes light up at it when we were in the store getting Tony's gift. I got you the shirts for Christmas and Tony outright spoiled you rotten... so this was going to wait until today. Welcome Home, Bruce."

"You've had this around since _Christmas_?" Bruce asked with a bit of shock. "And what do you mean ‘welcome home'? Haven't I been home?" Confused, Bruce looked at Pepper before looking back down at the package. Tony had made sure, that first Christmas, that he had everything he could ever need or even want and a few things he hadn't but Tony thought he needed. Going from having nothing to having more than he knew what to do with had made for a wonderful yet somewhat overwhelming holiday.

Now Pepper was giving him this. Her hopeful look to him was what got him to slide his fingertips beneath the gift wrap and tug at it, amused that the gift's colors matched Tony's wing.

"I told you ‘ _Welcome Home_ ' was lame," Tony grunted from beneath the covers, words slurred. "I added stuff to it," he grumpily kicked a foot out from under his blanket and toed at Bruce's leg lazily, "so you better like it."

"Tony," Pepper muttered, patting his ankle lightly, looking up at the other with a smile. "You'll like it, I promise."

Bruce opened up the neat little box and blinked at what lay amidst some gold-colored fabric. It was a phone that matched the pair he knew Tony and Pepper had, marked with Tony's own logo and one of only three in the world. He picked it up, brows furrowing as he tried to remember how to activate it before hitting the button that made the screen light up. There, as the background, was a picture of Tony holding Pepper in his arms, Pepper in mid-laugh and Tony grinning towards the camera. "It's.... it's.... thank you," Bruce finally said when he couldn't find better words. "How did you ever manage to make a camera that could take a picture of an Angel?"

"I'm magic." Tony snorted and slowly poked his head out of his blanket pile with a slight eyebrow raise. "I used the same settings that let JARVIS see me and hear me. I'm a genius and goddamnit," the Angel quickly began pushing out of the pile and reached out for Pepper and Bruce. "I'm cold."

"You're like a three year old." Pepper sighed, patting his ankle again, before tapping the phone. "We wanted something that lets you keep in contact no matter what, Bruce." She gave a lopsided, but overly fond look at him. "We love you."

"I am going to get hives," Tony muttered and yelped when Pepper dug a nail into his ankle. "You should check out the ringtone. I picked it."

"I changed it," Pepper interrupted.

"To what?"

"Nothing." Her grin was impish and Tony's scowl was almost precious. Bruce stared down at the phone in silence, Pepper's words ringing in his mind. _We love you. Keep in contact no matter what._

He didn't feel the first tear hit the sleek surface of the phone, but what made him look up was Pepper gently wiping the second tear from his cheek. Their eyes locked and he leaned into her hand, offering a small smile as more tears came. "Sorry," he whispered to her, but she shook her head and pulled him down beside Tony. Her slim arms curved around his waist and held him.

"We got you," she murmured into his neck. "We got you."

Tony forced his way so he was between them, and Bruce shivered when Tony kissed his shoulder. Pepper's annoyed huff and mutter of something that sounded like _damn it, Tony_ reached Bruce's ears before she moved to crawl over them both and settle behind Bruce. He didn't get the fight they had going on about this, but he could feel Tony's grin against his skin and felt another few kisses that lead up from his neck to his cheek. He guessed he ‘won' tonight by being in the middle. "Bruce?" Tony nosed the other's temple. "You got us."

Bruce wrapped his arms around Tony and he sighed happily against him, tangling his legs together with Pepper's. Maybe it was okay to just let life go day by day, sometimes, because otherwise he would worry too much about the future, about their hunt for the Angel named Steven, about the road of Redemption he wasn't sure he wanted to walk down. Instead, he closed his eyes, curled between the Human and Fallen he loved, and saw the stars on the back of his eyelids.

***

_"Hello? Is this--"_

_"I honestly didn't expect you to call, Ms. Potts. I have to admit, I was surprised when I recognized the number."_

_"Circumstances change, you know. There's something I need to ask you about - about a certain Angel. I think you know who I'm talking about, Father."_

_"...Why? What do you want with him?"_

_"We need to find him because he might be able to answer questions we have. You want to help someone on the road to Redemption? Then help us find Steven."_

_"We haven't been in contact lately, but I could try. I can't guarantee he'll-- Hold on, someone's knocking at my office door, I'll be right back."_

_"I can hold."_

_"Give me the phone- Potts? Listen here. I don't know what you're trying to pull, but Coulson's told me about that shit you pulled. Ever hear of kidnapping and assault?"_

_"Who are you?"_

_"Nick Fury, director of SHIELD. I want to talk to you about the Avenger Initiative."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
> _a matter of trust soundtrack_  
>  [1] Matter of Trust - Billy Joel  
> [2] Iris - Goo Goo Dolls  
> [3] Always a Woman to Me - Billy Joel  
> [4] Call Your Name - Daughtry  
> [5] Gravity - Sara Bareilles  
> [6] Science and Faith - The Script  
> [7] Left Alone - Hudson Taylor  
> [8] Trading Yesterday - Love Song Requiem  
> [10] You Can Still Be Free - Savage Garden  
> [11] God's Gonna Cut You Down - Johnny Cash  
> [12] Distance - Christina Perri  
> [13] Heartlines - Florence and the Machines  
> [14] Angel - Sinead O’Connor  
> [15] Tonight - Take Me to the Pilot  
> [16] Darkening Sky - Peter Bradley Adams
> 
> [download here!](http://www.sendspace.com/file/ekb3uy)   
> 
> 
> It's officially done! Thank you for reading! :) 


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